Google uses geothermal energy in datacenters

In an unprecedented project to accelerate the transition of its datacenters and offices to clean energy on a global scale by 2030, decarbonizing its electrical systems, Google recently began using geothermal energy with new techniques to harness the heat from inside the earth’s crust to generate electricity.

The initiative is the result of a partnership with the startup Fervo established two years ago to complement other clean energy sources, such as solar and wind, used by Google. The geothermal project became operational at the end of November and is supplying carbon-free electricity to the local grid that serves Google’s data centers in Nevada, in the United States.

Fervo’s new geothermal power plant sends energy to another plant nearby, which passes it on to the network that powers Google’s datacenters. Fervo uses hydraulic fracturing technology from the oil and gas industry to create fractures between deep wells. It then pumps water into a circuit to harness this heat. According to the Fast Company website, two 2.5 km deep wells were dug in Nevada and drilled 1 km horizontally to connect them. The hot water coming from hot, porous rocks heated by tectonic activity produces steam that drives a turbine to generate electricity.

As part of the agreement with Google, Artificial Intelligence and machine learning solutions are also to be developed to raise the productivity levels of the next generation of geothermal energy.

Geothermal energy is a viable option in many areas where other renewable energy sources are not available. What’s more, unlike solar and wind sources that only generate energy at certain times of the day or in certain weather conditions, geothermal power plants are able to provide a constant flow of energy. The US Department of Energy reports that geothermal energy could provide up to 120 gigawatts of reliable and flexible generation capacity by 2050 and thus generate more than 16% of the country’s expected electricity demand.

Despite this, geothermal energy is still not widely used, because traditional technologies today can only be implemented in areas where underground heat is easily accessible.

According to Google, the project in Nevada is just one step in the journey to adopt geothermal energy. The company recently announced another partnership with InnerSpace, a non-profit organization dedicated to accelerating the use of this type of clean energy. The collaboration brings together InnerSpace’s expertise and underground resources with Google’s data and software to, among other initiatives, develop a global geothermal resource mapping and assessment tool.

From non-renewable sources

Tim Latimer, co-founder of Fervo, started his career in the oil and gas industry. In an interview with TIME, he explained how he found a way to use industry technology that exploits non-renewable energy sources to profitably exploit really hot, shallow and productive natural basins.

Instead of drilling vertical wells and letting the water flow between the injection wells and the production wells, as is traditionally done, Fervo’s technology drills about 2.5 km deep and then drills horizontally for about 1.5 km. It then lets the water flow from one horizontal well to another next to it several hundred meters away. According to Latimer, this solves some of the economic challenges and makes it possible to go to deeper places.

“The oil and gas industry has been an important part of my life (…), but the more I fell in love with the subject of climate change, the more I really wanted to look for new solutions (…). I started thinking about how someone in the oil and gas industry could apply their skills to address these changes. When I discovered the geothermal source, I was very excited. This is a field that needs drilling engineers, but to produce a carbon-free energy source,” explains Latimer.

After the relatively small Nevada project, Fervo’s next installations will be almost 100 times larger. The goal is to reach 400 megawatts in a plant in Utah that will be built in the next four years and to reach 20% of the electricity supply in the United States by 2050. And why not replicate the idea in several other parts of the world, adds Latimer.