Houston-based geothermal power company Fervo Energy saw a 65 percent spike in purchase orders during the third quarter.
During Fervo’s third-quarter earnings call, Tim Latimer, co-founder, chair, president and CEO, said the company had a $11.9 billion backlog of orders, up from $7.2 billion in the previous quarter.
Those numbers didn’t translate to robust financial results in the third quarter, though. It closed the quarter with an operating loss of $43 million on revenue of just $116,000.
Beyond the billions of dollars in signed purchase agreements, Fervo is in talks with prospective customers in the utility, industrial data-center sectors, Latimer said. About half the potential customers are in the data-center sector, 35 percent in the utility sector and 15 percent in the industrial sector.
Latimer said the broad-based demand reflected by the backlog and the discussions with potential customers reinforces the critical need for reliable, readily available power.
“Our approach to power delivery will continue to blend front-of-the-meter and behind-the-meter development,” he said. “Grid-connected assets remain the foundation, though behind-the-meter gives customers a faster path to power when transmission time lines lag their need.”
Front-of-the-meter refers to power plants, utility-scale solar and wind farms, large grid batteries, and transmission and distribution infrastructure. Behind-the-meter assets sit on the customer side of the meter, such as backup generators and EV chargers at homes, businesses, factories and other everyday places.
The order backlog isn’t Fervo’s only recent milestone. In late September, the company’s Cape Station geothermal plant in Utah started delivering its first utility-scale geothermal power to the grid. The plant is producing about 33 megawatts of power.
Earlier in September, Fervo signed a 15-year deal to supply about 396 megawatts of power for Google data centers. The power will be delivered in four 99-megawatt batches. The company filed its $1.89 billion IPO this spring.
- Fervo taps into its hottest-ever geothermal reservoir ›
- Fervo Energy scores third consecutive nod on MIT climatech list ›
- Fervo Energy spotlighted by Bill Gates as geothermal’s global growth driver ›
- Fervo Energy strikes largest-ever power deal with Google ›
- Fervo Energy officially files for initial public offering ›