Google agreed to buy 396 megawatts from Fervo Energy's Cape Station plant in Utah under a power-purchase agreement announced Tuesday, with commercial operation expected in 2028 and an option through June 2030 for an additional 600 megawatts. [1] TechCrunch sold a geothermal win. The contract is a 2028 start plus optional extra megawatts. Do not collapse the option into delivered 396.
The paper's Aug. 30 account of SpaceX's turbine foundry already treated announced power as not delivered electrons. Wednesday's TechCrunch coverage of a Tuesday PPA is the same test on a different fuel. Google still has an April Crusoe deal for 933 megawatts of natural gas in Texas. [1] This PPA is the net-zero offset, not "Google went green."
Cape Station is permitted for up to 2 gigawatts. Sarah Jewett, Fervo's senior vice president of strategy, told TechCrunch in May that a third-party engineer said the heat could support about twice that. [1] Permitted capacity, engineer estimates, and contracted megawatts are three stages. The fetched Wednesday record is 396 megawatts online in 2028, with 600 more optional through June 2030. Four gigawatts of U.S. geothermal doubling is a hypothetical if fully developed, not a receipt.
For years Google has been one of the larger buyers of wind, solar and batteries, chasing a public promise of net-zero emissions by 2030. [1] The April Crusoe gas deal made that goal harder. [1] Tim De Chant writes that the Fervo contract "could help Google fuel its AI ambitions without significantly imperiling its net-zero goal." [1] Could is not 2028 electrons. Enhanced geothermal, TechCrunch notes, can tap deeper heat; a recent Energy Department report said the United States could generate up to 57 terawatts with those methods. [1] A national technical ceiling is not Cape Station's 396.
Google has bought Fervo power for more than five years and invested in the company's last funding round before the IPO. [1] The companies' first electrons together were an earlier, smaller receipt. [1] The stock jumped about 30 percent on the deal news Tuesday; traders took profits Wednesday. [1] Fervo had shed its IPO-day pop over subsequent months. [1] Tape is not electrons either. Hyperscalers are scouring the country for new supply. A 2028 geothermal PPA and a Texas gas plant can sit in the same book. Announcement, option, and commercial operation remain separate. Google's planned Utah data center is the load the 396 megawatts are meant to serve. [1] A planned load is not a running hall.
TechCrunch's headline rounded the contract to "400 MW." The body, and Fervo's own announcement as TechCrunch quotes it, is 396. [1] Use 396. The option through June 2030 is 600 more, which would take the pair toward a gigawatt if exercised. [1] Exercised is a later stage. Jewett's engineer note that the field might hold enough heat for about 4 gigawatts is a resource estimate, not a Google obligation. [1] The paper's AI-power test does not change because the fuel is steam instead of turbines: a signed PPA is a contract. 2028 is a date. Electrons are a later fact.
-- DARA OSEI, London