This geothermal startup showed its wells can be used like a giant underground battery

Houston-based Fervo Energy is testing out a new spin on the standard approach to geothermal power plants.

The startup pumped water thousands of feet underground and then held it there, watching for what would happen.

When they finally released the valve, the output of water surged and it continued pumping out at higher-than-normal levels for hours.

Fervo is exploring how to extract the heat from the earth in places where there’s no natural circulating geothermal system already.

The DOE has announced plans to invest tens of millions of dollars more in the field through its Enhanced Geothermal Shot initiative.

There are still only a handful of enhanced geothermal systems operating commercially in the US today.

Fervo may be the first company to field-test this means of combining storage and flexibility at an enhanced-geothermal site.

The core challenge in creating a carbon-free power sector is that the amount of electricity generated from wind and solar farms fluctuates dramatically through the day and year.

Today there’s only about four gigawatts of geothermal energy in the US.