There’s an influence crunch looming as AI and cloud providers ramp up data center construction. But a brand new report suggests that an answer lies beneath their foundations.
Advanced geothermal power could supply nearly two-thirds of latest data center demand by 2030, in response to an evaluation by the Rhodium Group. The additions would quadruple the quantity of geothermal power capability within the U.S. — from 4 gigawatts to about 16 gigawatts — while costing the identical or lower than what data center operators pay today.
Within the western U.S., where geothermal resources are more plentiful, the technology could provide 100% of latest data center demand. Phoenix, for instance, could add 3.8 gigawatts of knowledge center capability without constructing a single latest conventional power plant.
Geothermal resources have enormous potential to offer consistent power. Historically, geothermal power plants have been limited to places where Earth’s heat seeps near the surface. But advanced geothermal techniques could unlock 90 gigawatts of unpolluted power within the U.S. alone, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
Advanced or enhanced geothermal encompasses a big selection of approaches, but generally they drill deeper and wider than before. That permits them to access hotter rocks — which translates into more power — and pack more geothermal wells onto a single property. The sector has seen a surge of startups lately, driven partly by knowledge and technology borrowed from oil and gas corporations.
Fervo Energy, for instance, was founded by former oil and gas engineers to expand geothermal’s potential using horizontal drilling techniques perfected over the previous few many years. The corporate raised over $200 million in 2024 on the heels of great cost reductions in well drilling.
One other startup, Bedrock Energy, is drilling deep to attenuate geothermal’s footprint, allowing space-constrained office buildings and data centers to extract more power from their limited footprints. The corporate’s specialized drilling rigs bore down greater than 1,200 feet to tap consistent heat year-round.
Quaise Energy’s technology appears like something out of science fiction. The startup vaporizes rock using microwaves generated by gyrotrons. By skipping traditional drill bits, Quaise hopes to drill as deep as 12.4 miles (20 kilometers). At that depth, the rocks are nearly 1,000°F year-round, offering nearly limitless amounts of warmth to drive generators or warm buildings.
While most corporations are using Earth’s ability to offer and store heat, one other startup is using it to store energy one other way. Sage Geosystems has been injecting water into wells under pressure. When power is required, it will probably open the taps and run the water through a turbine, form of like an upside-down hydroelectric dam.
Because geothermal power has very low running costs, its price is competitive with data centers’ energy costs today, the Rhodium report said. When data centers are sited similarly to how they’re today, a process that typically takes into consideration proximity to fiber optics and major metro areas, geothermal power costs just over $75 per megawatt hour.
But when developers account for geothermal potential of their siting, the prices drop significantly, all the way down to around $50 per megawatt hour.
The report assumes that latest generating capability can be “behind the meter,” which is what experts call power plants which can be attached on to a customer, bypassing the grid. Wait times for brand spanking new power plants to connect with the grid can stretch on for years. In consequence, behind the meter arrangements have turn out to be more appealing for data center operators who’re scrambling to construct latest capability.
