A report published by the website "Oil Price" revealed significant collaboration among companies in the field of geothermal energy. Companies are striving to provide energy for their data centers, which consume large amounts of energy, using clean but reliable energy sources.
Major technology companies have made several deals over the past year to reduce carbon emissions in their energy consumption, according to the report. Some companies have turned to another source of low-carbon energy, which is nuclear power generation.
Earlier this year, Constellation Energy, the largest owner of nuclear power plants in the United States, signed its largest power purchase agreement ever with Microsoft, paving the way for the restart of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant.
However, currently, there are no plans to build new nuclear power plants. Geothermal energy can produce clean energy more quickly than the approval, construction, and commercial operation of a new nuclear plant.
However, geothermal energy faces its own challenges, such as approvals, drilling technologies, and high initial costs for startups.
A few months ago, "Sage Geosystems" collaborated with "Meta" in what the owner of "Facebook" described as "a unique project to significantly expand the use of geothermal energy in the United States."
As part of the partnership, "Meta" will use "Sage's" proprietary geothermal technology to provide carbon-free energy for its data centers. As part of this partnership with "Sage," "Meta" plans to provide up to 150 megawatts of geothermal energy to support the growth of its data centers.
Then there is "Google," which has partnered with "Ferfu Energy," a company that utilizes drilling techniques developed by the oil and gas sector to extract heat that was previously difficult to access. "Fervo Energy" supports an American company in the shale oil field. Last year, it announced a strategic investment of $10 million from "Devon Energy."
While major technology companies are pushing to develop geothermal energy and make breakthroughs in it, other companies seem hesitant to make a big bet on it.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a report earlier this month that the fracking techniques perfected in the U.S. shale sector could help drill to access deeper and hotter geothermal energy resources and reduce geothermal energy costs to make this low-carbon energy source competitive with other clean energy solutions.
The agency added that the oil and gas industry can play a key role in exploring geothermal energy resources by providing fracking expertise and increasing investments in the sector.
IEA estimates that with appropriate support, the costs of next-generation geothermal energy could decrease by 80% by 2035. The agency stated, "At this cost level, next-generation geothermal energy would also be highly competitive with solar photovoltaic and wind energy combined with battery storage."
