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Drilling tech co. with Houston HQ to partner on European geothermal power plant

GA Drilling opened its Houston office in 2013 to tap into the region’s oil and gas industry. Photo via Getty Images

GA Drilling, a provider of geothermal drilling technology whose U.S. headquarters is in Houston, is teaming up with a European energy company to develop a geothermal power plant in Germany.

GA Drilling and ZeroGeo Energy, a Swiss company specializing in renewable energy, say the 12-megawatt Hot Dry Rock Geothermal Power Plant (Project THERMO) is the first of several geothermal power and geothermal energy storage projects they’re planning in Europe. GA Drilling will supply technology for Hot Dry Rock, and ZeroGEO will operate the plant.

“The need for clean baseload power is real, and geothermal has the highest potential to deliver that safely and securely. We’re excited to be collaborating with ZeroGeo to help address the power needs in Europe,” Dusan Kocis, co-founder and chief operating officer of Slovakia-based GA Drilling, says in a news release.

GA Drilling opened its Houston office in 2013 to tap into the region’s oil and gas industry.

Last year, GA Drilling conducted the first public demonstration of its latest deep drilling tool, ANCHORBIT. GA Drilling says it developed the tool to cut the cost of deep geothermal drilling by doubling drilling speeds and extending the life of drill bits.

GA Drilling performed the ANCHORBIT test at Nabors Industries’ technology center in Houston. Nabors, a drilling contractor based in Houston, is using GA Drilling’s technology in its drilling operations.

In 2022, Nabors invested $8 million in GA Drilling.

“Given the expected sharp growth in global energy consumption over the next decades, the world will require an even sharper growth in sustainable energy supply. I am convinced that geothermal energy will be a key contributor to the necessary increase in clean energy generation,” Anthony Petrello, chairman, president, and CEO of Nabors, said in an announcement about the GA Drilling investment.

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A View From HETI

TotalEnergies will supply power to Google data centers from two Texas solar farms under development. Photo via totalenergies.us

French energy company TotalEnergies, whose U.S. headquarters are in Houston, has signed power purchase agreements to supply 1 gigawatt of solar power for Google data centers in Texas over a 15-year span.

The power will be generated by TotalEnergies’ two solar farms that are being developed in Texas. Construction on the company’s Wichita site (805 megawatt-peak, or MWp) and Mustang Creek site (195 MWp) is scheduled to start in the second quarter of this year.

Marc-Antoine Pignon, U.S. vice president for renewables at TotalEnergies, said in a press release that the 1-gigawatt deal “highlights TotalEnergies’ strategy to deliver tailored renewable energy solutions that support the decarbonization goals of digital players, particularly data centers.”

The deal comes after California-based Clearway, in which TotalEnergies holds a 50 percent stake, secured an agreement to supply 1.2 gigawatts of solar power to Google data centers in Texas and other states.

“Supporting a strong, stable, affordable grid is a top priority as we expand our infrastructure,” said Will Conkling, director of clean energy and power at Google. “Our agreement with TotalEnergies adds necessary new generation to the local system, boosting the amount of affordable and reliable power supply available to serve the entire region.”

TotalEnergies maintains a 10-gigawatt-capacity portfolio of onshore solar, wind and battery storage assets in the U.S., including 5 gigawatts in the territory served by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).

Other clean energy customers of TotalEnergies include Airbus, Air Liquide, Amazon, LyondellBasell, Merck and Microsoft.

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