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| The team at Fervo Energy, an enhanced geothermal startup that has secured funding from Breakthrough Energy Ventures. COURTESY FERVO ENERGY. |
Fervo Energy’s CEO Tim Latimer, who previously worked as a drilling engineer for BHP Billiton’s shale operations, says the startup intends to use the funding to move forward with field deployments to test and refine their so-called enhanced geothermal systems. The company’s other cofounder is Jack Norbeck, who was a reservoir engineer at The Geysers in Northern California, the world’s largest geothermal field.
Fervo’s founders – currently fellows at the Cyclotron Road program at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory – believe they can improve the performance of enhanced geothermal systems, by isolating multiple zones inside a well and optimizing water flow within each of them.
While some of the technical details are proprietary, Latimer says the company is using horizontal drilling techniques that have become far cheaper, thanks to improvements developed by the booming natural gas industry. It is also employing fiber optic temperature gauges that can run through underground wells, along with other sensors and simulation software, to create a clearer understanding of underground structures and dynamics.
