When congressional Republicans took a sledgehammer to the Inflation Reduction Act last summer, advanced geothermal startups were largely spared. Drilling for renewable energy appears to be one of the few things that engenders bipartisan support.
Now, with the uncertainty settled, geothermal companies are announcing deals that promise to pave the way for broader deployment of their technology.
If all goes to plan, Virginia will be the site of the world’s first grid-scale nuclear fusion power plant, able to harness this futuristic clean power and generate electricity from it by the early 2030s, according to an announcement Tuesday by the startup Commonwealth Fusion Systems.
CFS, one of the largest and most-hyped nuclear fusion companies, will make a multibillion-dollar investment into building the facility near Richmond. When operational, the plant will be able to plug into the grid and produce 400 megawatts, enough to power around 150,000 homes, said its CEO Bob Mumgaard.
EcoTech Note: Here’s the clearest statement of the important of having “learning curve” improvements in price/performance reduce the cost of this new design:
“The [power purchase agreement by Google] answers questions that have bedeviled smaller-reactor designs: What customer would pay the higher price for a first-of-a-kind project? And who would order enough to get an assembly line started? The concept, which remains to be proven, is that building the same thing over and over in a factory would drive down costs.
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EcoTech Note: Here is a new wind energy system that has raised early money (two rounds: $4m in 2020 and $13m recently) and created “proof of concept” pilot plant. The $13m will create a full-size 1.0 megawatt demonstration.
Below are two important charts showing how much lower the upfront capital and installation costs are compared to conventional wind turbines. Below that are links to a positive press story and a skeptical YouTube evaluation.
It also looks like DOD funding will help get this promising CleanTech across the Valley of Death with 2.5 megawatt reactors built in 2026.
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EcoTech Note: In 2021, the Biden Administration announced the Energy Earthshots™ Initiative, which sets technical and cost goals in key next-generation clean energy to be achieved by 2030 or 2035. The effort was based on DOE’s highly successful SunShot, which set out in 2011 to slash the cost of solar energy 75% within a decade (and did so three years early).
See the ambitious stretch goals for these 8 Energy Earthshots (where *means 2030 goal): cheap hydrogen* ($1/kg); carbon dioxide removal* at less than $100/ton; long-duration energy storage* for 90% less than 2020; floating offshore wind costs down by 70%; enhanced geothermal energy below $45/mwh; decarbonized industrial heat with 85% lower GHGs; clean fuels and [chemical] products with 85% lower GHGs; and reduced home energy costs* by 20% and having retrofit upfront costs decline by 50%.
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News flash: H.R. 6474, a bill to amend the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to expedite geothermal exploration and development in previously studied or developed areas, passed the House yesterday by voice vote. It now goes to the Senate for action.
NV-03 Representative Susie Lee originally co-sponsored the bill with R. Michelle Steel from California. See https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/6474/all-actions for legislative details. Basically, this bill extends the same “categorical exclusions” to environmental impact requirements that are available for oil and gas exploration to geothermal exploration. It’s no secret that Nevada sits on top of some significant geothermal resources. It now goes to the Senate for action.
U.S. developers added 11 gigawatts (GW) of new utility-scale clean power capacity in the second quarter, according to the American Clean Power Association’s (ACP) Clean Power Quarterly Market Report.
This record-breaking amount marks a 91 percent increase over the second quarter of 2023.
For the year, there has been 19 GW of installations, which is more than double the five-year average for installations in the first half of the year. With the second half of the year historically much stronger than the first half for clean power additions, the likelihood is high for a record-breaking year in 2024.
The global transition to clean electricity has reached important new milestones and is set to continue at the current pace. According to a pair of new reports by research provider BloombergNEF (BNEF), for the first time ever, zero-carbon sources made up over 40% of the electricity the world generated in 2023. Hydro power accounted for 14.7%, while wind and solar contributed almost as much at 13.9% – a new record high. Nuclear’s share was 9.4%.
These findings emerge from two reports published today by BNEF: Power Transition Trends 2024, and the 2H 2024 Renewable Energy Investment Tracker, which indicate that momentum towards clean power has also accelerated, with wind and solar representing nearly 91% of net new power capacity additions in 2023 – up from 83% the year before – while fossil fuels including coal and gas represented just 6% of net new build – the lowest level ever.
Storage capacity in the U.S. has grown enough in recent years to be able to power many millions of homes, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. California and Texas dominate the industry, but projects are in the works in Nevada, Arizona and elsewhere to help meet growing power demand from artificial-intelligence data centers and manufacturing plants.
Private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management recently agreed to a $315.5 million debt investment in Eos Energy Enterprises, a startup producing zinc batteries that could store energy for longer periods. A developer called rPlus Energies just raised over $1 billion for a big solar and storage project in Utah.
With highly fractured, permeable ground, the Great Basin’s geology makes it one of the most geothermally rich areas in the world. Hot fluid rises easily toward the surface, ideal for driving power plants, and present-day…
To improve permitting of geothermal energy exploration on public lands, the Bureau of Land Management today adopted two existing categorical exclusions from the United States Forest Service and the Department of the Navy. The categorical exclusions will enable the agency to expedite the review and approval of geothermal exploration proposals.
Note: Here is a VC-backed company which is using solar power to pull CO2 and H20 out of the air and combine it into CH4 … better known as methane or natural gas! Importantly, this tech looks like it might get cheap enough to scale up. The video tour by the CEO explains the chemistry and economics.
Today, Terraform is announcing that it has commissioned a demonstrator plant and produced synthetic natural gas for the first time.
Roughly the size of two shipping containers, the Terraformer consists of three …
