Opinion
Sage's subsurface storage is more cost-effective than lithium-ion batteries
“You're using four batteries to achieve that 16 hour duration, whereas ours, it's made really for that longer duration, and so it's going to be more cost effective than the batteries.”
Assertion Open · timeframe Dec 2028
Sage's subsurface pressure technology can store energy for weeks or months
“So yes, we can literally store the water for weeks, if not months you know, and we would just monitor the pressure depending on the formation permeability. We may have to have water added occasionally to keep the pressure up, but in some formations, like I sai…”
Insight
Turning solar into 24-hour power requires a 16-hour storage discharge duration
“If you're trying to turn solar into 24 hour, you need a 16 hour discharge duration, basically to produce power, you know, between the time the sun goes down to the time the sun comes back up.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Sage's grid interconnection feasibility study took 11 months despite shorter estimates
“The feasibility study, in the beginning, we were said, told it, it'll take six weeks, And then we immediately put our application in, and then we were told it'll take six months, and then it ended up taking, like, 10 or 11 months.”
Insight
Grid interconnection queues are artificially inflated by unfunded, speculative projects
“Because the process is so long, different Projects will be put into the queue, even though they may or may not be funded, even though they may or may not, you know, know that they're going to be going forward, and so the queue gets very long, and then projects…”
Assertion Supported
Sage's systems operate deeper than pumped hydro, yielding higher energy density
“So, we actually are deeper than the tallest pumped hydro, which is about 3000 feet. Our depths are eight to 12,000 feet. So we have actually a higher energy density, so the deeper you go, the higher that energy density is going to be because of that pressure e…”
Opinion
The oil and gas industry is equipped to scale geothermal energy
“The oil and gas industry is primed. The infrastructure is there. It's already primed to scale geothermal once the industry, again, is ready to scale. We don't have to wait on new skill sets being built”
Insight
Horizontal drilling and fracking advances enabled next-generation geothermal cost reductions
“Those technology developments, the horizontal drilling, driving the cost down of horizontal drilling, as well as multi-stage fracking in a well is exactly what The next generation geothermal needed in order to drive down cost and in order to make it a an affor…”
Disclosure
Ormat Technologies will license Sage's tech for energy storage and generation
“So they actually will license our technology for both storage and for geothermal power generation, which will allow them to grow as a company.”
Assertion Supported
Sage Geosystems built and commissioned its commercial storage facility in 13 months
“We were actually able to build and commission that facility in 13 months. That's from funding to actually being ready to store power.”
Assertion Supported
Sage re-engineered commercial Pelton turbines to withstand 5,000 PSI
“The Pelton turbines that are out there in the industry for pump storage hydropower are not rated to the same pressure as our Pelton turbine, so our Pelton turbine's rated to 5000 PSI, and that's because, again, we are deeper than the tallest pumped hydro, so w…”
Disclosure
Sage Geosystems targets rock formations with permeability under 50 millidarcies
“So there, the permeability measure is millidarces, so we want 50 millidarces or less.”
Assertion Supported
US geothermal drills roughly 50 wells annually compared to oil's 30,000
“The geothermal, geothermal industry, which drills, you know, anywhere from, say, 30 to 50 wells a year, and the, and this is in the U.S., and the oil and gas industry, which drills, you know, 20 to 30,000 wells a year, did not get together.”
