AIBRIEF
The 100 MW Utah site is the first commercial 'enhanced' geothermal plant, a deeper drilled variant of the technology, built in 23 months, with Google and Southern California Edison (SCE) already signed to buy.
Fervo Energy's first 33-MW block at Cape Station declared contractual commercial operation on September 30, one day ahead of schedule, and is now selling firm, dispatchable power to the grid under a power purchase agreement (Fervo Energy).
The mechanism is borrowed from oil and gas: horizontal drilling taken miles deeper than traditional geothermal wells can reach, applied to hot rock, on a startup build clock. The first block took 23 months from groundbreaking to commissioning (TechCrunch).
Cape Station's Phase I is roughly 100 MW split across three 33-MW blocks. The other two are still in commissioning, with a contractual commercial operation date of January 1, 2027. Another 400 MW is under construction with an expected 2028 COD. Fervo projects the full site could eventually reach four gigawatts, but that is a long-run projection, not operating capacity (Fervo Energy).
Google and Southern California Edison committed to buy from the site before the first block reached commercial operation.
Fervo's earlier Project Red has fed the grid since 2023, but Cape Station is the first site to combine that drilling approach with hyperscaler-scale power purchase agreements at this size. Independent metered generation, sustained availability, and reservoir longevity are still to be verified (Utility Dive).