Enhanced geothermal

Geothermal power from hot, dry rock, made by opening fractures deep underground and circulating water through them.

• Conventional geothermal needs rare sites with hot water in naturally permeable rock; this aims to work wherever rock is hot enough.
• Oil-and-gas methods, horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, open cracks between wells 2–5 km deep at roughly 150–250 °C.
• Water pumped down one well heats as it flows through the cracks and returns up another to drive a turbine, giving round-the-clock power.
• Fervo's 2023 pilot hit commercial flow targets; the risks are induced earthquakes and fractures that short-circuit or cool over decades.