Enhanced Geothermal Systems Eye 150 GW US Capacity as Fervo Pushes Toward Cape Station Launch

Conventional US geothermal contributes roughly 0.2% of summer generation capacity at 2.7 GW, concentrated in California and Nevada. Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) — which borrow horizontal drilling and reservoir-creation techniques from fracking — could unlock 135 GW in the Great Basin alone, with broader estimates reaching 150 GW. The first US EGS power generator is slated to come online in 2026.

Houston-based Fervo Energy is the front-runner, building the 500 MW Cape Station in Beaver County, Utah (potentially scaling to 4.3 GW), plus a 115 MW Corsac Station in Nevada that will feed Google and NV Energy. Fervo just signed a three-year deal with Turboden America for 1.75 GW of organic Rankine cycle turbines and filed for an IPO on Nasdaq under ticker FRVO. It has leased nearly 600,000 acres across the US West and projects 42 GW of long-term capacity.

Unlike wind and solar, geothermal has retained Trump administration backing. February’s Unleashing American Energy executive order included a $171.5M DOE funding tranche for next-generation geothermal field tests. The combination of policy support, fracking-derived drilling tech, and grid demand from AI data centers is driving the sector’s pivot from niche to potentially significant baseload contributor.