May 21, 2025 · 41m · green-blueprint
Building Fervo's geothermal giant
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this episode of The Green Blueprint, host Laura Pierpoint interviews Fervo Energy VP of Strategy Sarah Jewett about pioneering enhanced geothermal systems, transferring oil and gas innovations to clean energy, and scaling their landmark 500-megawatt Cape Station project.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. How this is scored →
The hosts as informed peer 4.7 Guest teaching 3.4 Guest disagreement 0.1 The hosts pushing back 0.1
speaking balance: gold is the hosts, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 26:40 Reframing completed vs active project financing
In a very collegial episode, Jewett makes her most direct intervention by gently correcting the host's phrasing around project financing being completed rather than an ongoing challenge.
Hardest push from the hosts ▶ 37:20 Challenging conventional data center power narrativesHost pushes past standard assumptions about natural gas and nuclear power for data centers, citing equipment lead times and nuclear deployment lags to press for geothermal's positioning.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 26:40 Explaining geothermal's lack of standard debt financingJewett educates the host on why geothermal cannot immediately secure bank debt against commercial contracts the way mature wind and solar assets do.
The host holds their own ▶ 10:08 Host accurately diagnoses operator interface risksHost showcases her technical expertise by identifying exact subsurface risk variables—reservoir connectivity and brine incompatibility—earning immediate validation from the guest.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | The hosts as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | The hosts pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Honeymoon Text: First Steam at Project Red | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Host sets up the narrative of Project Red's breakthrough while Jewett recounts the emotional moment of receiving the steam verification text while on her honeymoon. | |
| Introduction to The Green Blueprint and Fervo's Mission | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | Host and guest break down the technical fundamentals of enhanced geothermal systems, contrasting traditional steam wells with horizontal drilling and hydraulic stimulation in hot dry rock. | |
| Project Red's Uplift Model and Operator Partnerships | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Host demonstrates strong industry insight by accurately anticipating the primary operational risks and brine connectivity concerns held by existing operators at Blue Mountain. | |
| Partnering with Google on First-of-a-Kind Offtake | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Host inquires whether Google had geothermal-specific motivations, and Jewett explains how Google's FOAK offtake model provided crucial brand validation without risking upfront capital. | |
| Financing Hardware Innovation Through Milestone De-risking | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | Host prompts on the difficulty of Series B climate hard tech raises, allowing Jewett to detail Fervo's methodical milestone-based de-risking framework from desktop modeling to multi-well systems. | |
| Scaling Up: From Repowering to Greenfield Projects | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Jewett explains how California's CPUC Midterm Reliability ruling catalyzed their pivot from repowering to greenfield projects, while the host probes the operational pacing between demo results and next-project design. | |
| Site Selection in Utah and Leveraging Utah FORGE Data | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | Host notes Nevada's historical prominence in geothermal, prompting Jewett to explain how publicly available subsurface data from the DOE Utah FORGE project heavily de-risked their Cape Station site selection. | |
| Community Engagement and Local Impact in Milford, Utah | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Jewett details how Fervo built local buy-in in Milford, Utah during an economic downturn caused by pork facility closures, establishing trust with local leadership. | |
| The Ongoing Journey of Project Financing for Geothermal | 4 | 5 | 1 | 0 | Jewett gently reframes the host's past-tense question about financing Cape Station, emphasizing that financing multi-hundred megawatt geothermal remains an active, ongoing effort as cost of capital drops. | |
| Cape Station Groundbreaking and Construction Progress | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | Jewett explains why Fervo abandoned a full wrap EPC model in favor of self-managing construction and engineering after running into traditional geothermal industry dogmas and inflated cost estimates. | |
| Oil and Gas Synergy: Transferring Skills for Climate Impact | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Host cites her previous dialogue on oil and gas talent transition, and Jewett outlines how major oilfield service providers and shale veterans provide both technical execution and bipartisan appeal. | |
| Geothermal's Opportunity in the AI and Data Center Boom | 6 | 3 | 0 | 1 | Host demonstrates deep sector knowledge highlighting gas turbine procurement delays and nuclear deployment timelines, asking why geothermal is overlooked in AI load growth discussions. |
Statements from this episode (29)
Pierpoint: Fervo's Project Red Became the Most Productive EGS in History
“In May of 23, Fervo Energy's Project Red in northern Nevada officially became the most productive enhanced geothermal system in history up until that point.”
Jewett: First Wells Cost the Most, Then Drilling Costs Drop Precipitously
“The way it works is that the first time they drill That well always takes the longest. They don't know anything about the rock, the area, etc. So those wells always take the longest, they're the most high cost, but then over time, the cost to drill wells in th…”
Pierpoint: Fervo applies horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing to geothermal
“Fervo is bringing two major innovations from the oil and gas industry to geothermal. Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing.”
Pierpoint: Project Red flow test proved Fervo's geothermal technique
“The flow test that Sarah spoke about at the top of the show proves that Fervo's techniques could produce steam, capable of generating electricity.”
Jewett: Fervo built a 3 MW, three-well system for Project Red
“So we ended up building roughly a three megawatt system, a pair of wells. We actually ended up building three wells. One was a vertical monitoring well that had a bunch of To poison it to sort of monitor the entire system so we could learn from it. And then we…”
Jewett: Google agreed to buy Fervo power with zero upfront risk
“And so we ended up, you know, landing Google for that contract, and Google said, we are also not going to put anything at risk, but in the event that you end up producing electrons from this system, we will pay you for those electrons.”
Jewett: Fervo funded first demonstration with corporate equity
“So this was, we ended up raising
Corporate equity to fund this first demonstration.”
Jewett: Fervo executed four-stage hydraulic fracture before Project Red
“So we actually raised, post-desktop studies, we raised capital for a very small-scale demonstration.
We went into an existing, highly deviated well in the same field where we ended up
Building Project Red, and we did a four-stage hydraulic fracture in differen…”
Jewett: Fervo had a 15-project pipeline by mid-2020
“When I joined Firvo in the middle of twenty-twenty, the team already had a pipeline of 15 projects, which is just crazy to think about now, that we had already identified a number of different future projects and started to amass leased acreage positions in va…”
Jewett: Fervo originally planned to repower declining US geothermal facilities
“At that point in time, actually, when we were looking at building Project Red, we thought that this repower agreement or this power uplift agreement would be something that was actually cookie cutter for us that we started doing a bunch of. We went to all the …”
Jewett: California's 2021 reliability ruling mandated 1 GW of firm clean power
“In June of twenty-twenty-one, the California Public Utilities Commission launched the midterm reliability ruling, which I think is one of the biggest pieces of policy that has impacted our business to date, and it required all California load-serving entities …”
Founders must start their next project before the previous one finishes
“I think the next project is always being built before you see a reasonable set of definitive outcomes from the previous project if you know, are really on the entrepreneurial journey.”
Jewett: Fervo began greenfield drilling within one quarter of initial well test
“So that well test where we were watching steam first come from the silencer was in early Q two of 2023. And by late Q-two of twenty-twenty-three, we were drilling at our first Greenfield site.”
Jewett: Geothermal development requires subsurface data unlike wind and solar
“Geothermal, unlike wind and solar, where you can measure it by observing surface conditions, you have to know about the subsurface resource in order to have high confidence that you can go build a geothermal facility in a place.”
Jewett: Utah FORGE data de-risked Fervo's acreage and reduced wildcat drilling
“The work that the Forge was doing was rapidly basically de-risking our acreage there because we were able to understand more and more and more about the subsurface. And so, it actually became very clear to us that our Southwest Utah resource was less risky and…”
Jewett: Fervo will deliver 100MW by 2026 and 400MW by 2028
“The first hundred megawatts will be delivered by twenty-twenty-six, and the remaining 400 megawatts will be delivered by twenty-twenty-eight.”
Jewett: Fervo will standardize on 50MW modular units for future projects
“And so, for phase two, we will be designing very standard 50 megawatt units, hoping to be able to use those 50 megawatt units for projects in the future. And that's our model going forward.”
Jewett: Geothermal projects cannot be bank-financed solely on early commercial agreements
“When you look at the wind and solar industry, those industries are fairly de-risked, And so oftentimes you can, you know, sign a commercial agreement very early on and go finance against that commercial agreement because there's a lot of certainty around the e…”
Jewett: Fervo funded early Cape Station Phase 1 with corporate equity
“All of the early phases of Cape Station phase one, we have been financing with corporate equity.”
Jewett: All Fervo binding offtake contracts are with California load-serving entities
“So all of our existing binding commercial offtake agreements are with California load-serving entities, and they have mostly procured under this MTR regulatory ruling.”
Jewett: Fervo signed another power purchase agreement with Google in Nevada
“Google we've remained in close discussions with, and we've signed another power purchase agreement with Google in Nevada.”
Jewett: Tech companies are shifting toward longer-term power offtake agreements
“I think now we're seeing a little bit more of a robust demand from the tech community for slightly longer-term thinking, and there's a lot more, you know, real negotiating leverage behind a lot of those off-take agreements in a way we haven't seen before.”
Jewett: Fervo has drilled 21 of 24 wells for Cape Station Phase 1
“We have actually built, we've drilled, I think, 21 of 24 wells for our first phase, and so we're almost completely finished with our drilling phase, and we have cleared the pads for all three power facilities and built foundations, and on one of the power faci…”
Jewett: Fervo initially planned to outsource power facility construction to EPCs
“We originally believed that we would contract it out. We believed we were a subsurface innovation company, and we would get to Greenfield Developments. We would build out the subsurface, and then we would basically use a full wrap EPC on the top side.”
Jewett: Fervo proved hydraulic fracturing and lateral drilling work in granite
“There was a lot of skepticism. You can't hit those drilling rates in granite. If you can't hit that build rate to a lateral well in granite, you can't do a plug and perf operation, you know, hydraulic fracturing operation in granite in the same way that you ca…”
Jewett: About 60% of Fervo Energy's team has oil and gas background
“So we have about 60% of our team comes from the oil and gas industry, and I think a lot of them are motivated by the idea of sort of what I call using our powers for good.”
Jewett: Schlumberger, Halliburton, Baker Hughes service Fervo's Cape Station
“All the big name service companies that service the oil and gas industry are servicing us today. So Schlumberger, Halliburton, Baker Hughes, all the big dogs have set foot on Cape Station, and so we are actually providing all of them with a great deal of certa…”