As AI and cloud providers increase their data center construction, power tightening is imminent. But a new report shows that the solution is under its foundation.
According to an advanced geothermal power, by 2030 analyze By Rhodium Group. These increases will bring the U.S. geothermal power capacity amounts (from 4 GW) to about 16 GW, which is the same or less than what data center operators pay today.
In the western United States, where geothermal resources are richer, the technology can provide 100% of new data center demand. For example, Phoenix could add 3.8 GW of data center capacity without the need to build a new conventional power plant.
Geothermal resources have great potential to provide consistent power. Historically, geothermal power plants were limited to where the earth’s heat penetrated into the ground. But in the United States alone, advanced geothermal technology can unlock 90 GW of clean energy according to Go to the U.S. Department of Energy.
Advanced or enhanced geothermal heat includes a variety of methods, but they are usually deeper and wider than before. This way they can enter the hot rock (which can be converted to more power) and pack more geothermal wells onto a single property. In recent years, the industry has seen a range of startups, driven in part by knowledge and technology borrowed from oil and gas companies.
For example, Fervo Energy was established by former oil and gas engineers to expand geothermal potential using horizontal drilling techniques over the past few decades. company Raised over $200 million In 2024, the cost of well drilling will be greatly reduced.
Another startup is Bedrock Energy, In-depth drilling To minimize the footprint of geothermal heat, space-constrained office buildings and data centers allow space-constrained to extract more power from their limited footprints. The company’s specialist drilling rigs drill over 1,200 feet to exert consistent heat throughout the year.
Quaise Energy’s technology sounds like science fiction. Start a business Evaporate the rocks Microwaves generated using Gyrotron. By skipping traditional drill bits, Quaise hopes to drill up to 12.4 miles (20 km). At this depth, the rocks are nearly 1,000 degrees Celsius year-round, providing almost unlimited heat to drive generators or warm buildings.
While most companies take advantage of the Earth’s ability to provide and store heat, another startup is using it to store energy in another way. Sage Geographical System Inject water into the well Under pressure. When power is needed, it can turn on the faucet and run the water through the turbine, just like an upside-down hydroelectric dam.
The report says that because the operating costs of geothermal power are very low, its prices are competitive with the energy costs of today’s data centers. When placing a data center similar to what it is today, the process usually takes into account the proximity of fiber and major metro areas, and the cost of geothermal power is only $75 per megawatt.
However, when developers realize geothermal potential in site selection, the cost drops sharply, down to around $50 per megawatt.
The report assumes that new power generation capacity will “lag behind instrumentation,” what experts call a direct hook-up power plant, bypassing the grid. Time to wait for a new power plant to connect to the grid Continued for many years. As a result, the instrumentation layout becomes even more attractive for data center operators striving to build new capacity.
