
Fervo Energy Secures $206 Million in New Financing to Accelerate Cape Station Development
The confidence our investors have in Fervo and in the Cape asset affirms that next-generation geothermal is ready to play a defining role in America's energy future.
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The Cape Station development located in Beaver County, UT includes Cape Station Phase I, which will deliver 100 megawatts (MW) of baseload clean power to the grid beginning in 2026, and Cape Station Phase II, which will bring an additional 400 MW online by 2028. The full Cape Station development has received permitting approval to expand up to 2 GW.
Fervo completed the successful close of three significant transactions to facilitate this growth:
$100 million in project-level preferred equity from Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, a program within the larger Breakthrough Energy network focused on accelerating next-generation technologies from proof-of-concept to finance-ready infrastructure.
$60 million upsize to Fervo's existing corporate term loan facility from Mercuria, one of the world's largest independent energy and commodity groups.
$45.6 million in additional non-dilutive bridge debt financing from XRL-ALC, LLC ('XRA'), an affiliate of X-Caliber Rural Capital ('XRC') that offers conventional construction financing for commercial real estate and infrastructure projects located in 'micro-rural areas,' bringing their total funding to $145.6 million.
'With this capital in place, Fervo's ability to de-risk and finance multi-GW EGS project areas is becoming a reality,' said David Ulrey, Chief Financial Officer at Fervo Energy. 'These investments demonstrate what we've known all along: Fervo's combination of technical excellence, commercial readiness, and market opportunity makes us a natural partner for serious energy capital. The confidence our investors have in Fervo and in the Cape asset affirms that next-generation geothermal is ready to play a defining role in America's energy future.'
Breakthrough Energy Catalyst's $100 million investment follows an intensive technical, financial, and environmental diligence process, reinforcing the case for EGS as a credible, investable pathway for reliable, zero-carbon power.
'Fervo embodies exactly what we look for at Breakthrough Energy Catalyst: strong development capabilities, technical rigor, and a clear path to scale,' said Mario Fernandez, Head of Catalyst at Breakthrough Energy. 'Cape Station marks a major step forward in unlocking the infrastructure capital and project financing needed to commercialize EGS. This project proves what's possible when breakthrough innovation meets disciplined delivery. It sets the foundation for a model that can be repeated well beyond this site to provide affordable, reliable, and clean energy to the world.'
Fervo has also expanded its existing term loan facility with Mercuria from $40 million to $100 million, enhancing liquidity and reinforcing long-term alignment with one of the company's earliest strategic investors.
Additionally, XRA upsized its original $100 million bridge loan to $145.6 million, reflecting continued conviction in Cape Station's performance and development trajectory. The facility supports both subsurface and surface infrastructure development.
'We are very proud to help complete the funding of Fervo Energy's Cape Station Phase I,' said Jordan Blanchard, Co-Founder of X-Caliber Rural Capital, one of the nation's leading rural lenders. 'This milestone is not just a win for the future of clean energy, but for rural America—demonstrating how innovative financing and investing can drive transformative projects that create jobs, support local economies, and deliver reliable, carbon-free power to communities nationwide. With the Phase I now fully funded and supported by visionary investors like Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, we are proving that rural investment can have a global impact on sustainability and energy security.'
With full funding in place, key permits secured, and construction well underway, Cape Station Phase I remains on track for its 2026 commercial operation date. Fervo's ability to deliver fully contracted, firm renewable power positions it as the key generation player in the evolving American energy landscape.
About Fervo Energy
Fervo Energy provides 24/7 carbon-free energy through the development of next-generation geothermal power. Fervo's mission is to leverage innovation in geoscience to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy. The company's key advancements in drilling and subsurface analytics make geothermal cost competitive and globally scalable. For more information, visit www.fervoenergy.com.
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It has already signed a deal with Google to provide power to its data centers and has 600 megawatts of power purchase agreements with utilities like Cal Edison. Experts are excited by the company's progress. 'It's not cheap to do this, but if they're successful, it will be a big step forward,' Cornell's Tester said. Enhanced geothermal still faces many challenges: slashing costs, scaling up drilling under high-pressures and temperatures, and water use. There are also land issues. While the surface footprint of geothermal is small compared to solar or wind, it's still a big industrial endeavor with trucks and drilling rigs. Perhaps one of its most high-profile issues is earthquakes. 'If you drill a well and you pump super high-pressure fluids down it and cause a lot of rock shattering at depth, that's going to be felt at the surface,' said Gillian Foulger, a geologist at Durham University. The specter of what happened in Pohang, South Korea, still looms. In November 2017, a magnitude 5.5 earthquake shook the city, believed to have been triggered by an enhanced geothermal project. It was one of the country's most destructive earthquakes on record, injuring around 100 people and forcing thousands into emergency housing. Advocates believe the risks of similar big events are low. 'The beauty of a geothermal system is you actually are always monitoring the seismicity,' Tester said. 'I think those risks are very manageable.' Still, it can make a dent in public perception. Earthquakes are 'an industrial nuisance, basically akin to pollution,' Foulger said. They are also fundamentally unpredictable. A project could operate without issue for a decade, 'and then suddenly you could get troubling earthquakes,' she told CNN. Some companies are developing a different technology able to decrease the earthquake risk. It involves no fracking. Instead, it's like a 'massive underground radiator,' said Robert Winsloe, an executive vice president at the Canadian-based company Eavor. Eavor's technique works like this: it drills two deep vertical wells close to each other and brings them together horizontally in a closed loop. It then drills and connects multiple loops off the horizontal pipe. Water circulates through the pipes, picking up heat from the rock and flowing to the surface. The company is constructing its first commercial plant in the German town of Geretsried, outside Munich, burrowing nearly 2.8 miles into the ground. Operating costs are very low, as is seismic risk. But many experts question whether it could ever be economically viable given thr eye-watering upfront costs. The system relies on huge loops to collect enough heat, Moore said: 'It's very expensive drilling.' Winsloe is honest about the challenges, but if the economics stack up, he said, 'this is the game changer that we're looking for.' Other companies are trying to go deeper and hotter, using technology that sounds straight out of a sci-fi movie. Massachusetts-based Quaise Energy wants to drill down more than 6 miles to reach temperatures of over 900 degrees Fahrenheit, by vaporizing dense rock. Its gyrotron device produces high-powered energy waves that will be sent down a long metal tube miles into the Earth to destroy rock by heating it to temperatures of around 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit. The company is conducting field trials in Texas, and plans to drill its first full size geothermal boreholes by 2028. The eventual aim is to be able to drill 6 miles in just 100 days, said Matthew Houde, co-founder and chief of staff at Quaise. For comparison, the deepest well ever drilled, the Kola borehole in Russia completed in 1992, is 7.5 miles deep and took two decades to drill. Quaise's plans are bold but many are skeptical. 'Quaise really hasn't done a lot in terms of field demonstrations yet,' Tester said. 'They've made some incredible claims, and I'm not even sure that they'll get there.' Moore simply said, 'Show me that you can do it.' A big advantage of geothermal in the US is that it seems to be the rare form of energy with bipartisan support. It's green and creates jobs, pleasing Democrats. It's home-grown and fits with an energy independence agenda, pleasing Republicans. Even better, geothermal harnesses years of American drilling and fracking know-how from oil and gas extraction, helping bridge an energy culture long dominated by fossil fuels. 'Perhaps geothermal might be one of the few things that actually survives without serious cuts, because it's so heavily connected to oil and gas,' Tester said. It provides an easy transition for oil and gas workers, said David Turk, the former deputy energy secretary in the Biden administration. 'We've done more fracking and more drilling than any other country in the entire world,' Turk told CNN. 'We have a ready-made workforce.' Trump's Energy Sec. Chris Wright sat on the board of Fervo before starting his post at the Department of Energy. And geothermal has so far seemed to escape the chainsaw the Trump administration has taken to other forms of renewable energy. Turk said he's heartened to see geothermal getting a small funding boost in Trump's budget request, but added the government should be prepared to step in with more financial support to help really kickstart the technology. Energy Department spokesperson Olivia Tinari sounded a positive note. 'While geothermal energy hasn't achieved liftoff yet, it should, and it can,' she told CNN in a statement. 'A mature geothermal industry will energize our country.' For now, eyes are on the companies racing to make next-gen geothermal a commercial reality. Some experts remain cautious. Durham University's Gillian Foulger, who has worked in geothermal for four decades, said companies trumpet big breakthroughs all the time. 'I've heard that just about every year for the last 20 years,' she said. Foulger thinks commercialization is still two decades away. But if it can be done, she added, 'the potential payoff is pretty significant.' Fervo's Latimer is unsurprisingly far more bullish. 'The pace of technology innovation in geothermal has outpaced what really any market observers expected,' he said. And the opportunity is too enormous to ignore, he added. 'You could meet humanity's energy needs for 17 billion years based off just what's in the heat of the Earth.'