Fervo Energy, a geothermal power company backed by Bill Gates, has signed a 396-megawatt power purchase agreement with Google to expand their existing partnership. The deal, announced this week, covers electricity from Fervo's Cape Station project in southwestern Utah, expected to come online in 2028.
Google plans to use this carbon-free power as a foundational building block for a possible new data center in the state. The agreement marks the largest enhanced geothermal power purchase deal signed to date, and it comes at a time when hyperscalers across the US are racing to secure steady electricity for growing AI infrastructure needs.
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Under the agreement, power delivery will begin in the third quarter of 2028 through four separate 99-megawatt blocks, and the deal runs for a 15-year term. Google also holds an option to expand its purchase by roughly 600 additional megawatts by June 2030, a move that could push total contracted capacity to nearly one gigawatt.
Fervo CEO Tim Latimer said the agreement reinforces that enhanced geothermal systems are ready to power the next generation of computing infrastructure.
"As demand for reliable electricity grows, customers like Google need energy resources that can be deployed at scale, operate around the clock, and deliver where power is needed," Latimer said.
Google's Lucia Tian, Director of Advanced Energy Technologies, added that the project will drive real economic benefit for the local community and help lower long-term energy costs by making geothermal power more affordable and accessible.
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This deal builds on a relationship that started back in 2021, when Google first partnered with Fervo to jointly develop next-generation geothermal projects.
Their pilot project in Nevada, known as Project Red, went live in 2023 and continues to supply power to the local grid, including Google's own data centers in the state. In June 2024, the two companies signed a smaller 115-megawatt deal in Nevada alongside utility NV Energy.
Fervo relies on drilling techniques borrowed from the oil and gas industry to tap underground heat more efficiently, and this approach is quickly becoming an attractive alternative to solar and wind, since it can deliver steady, round-the-clock power without depending on weather conditions.