World’s first enhanced geothermal power plant completed in just 23 months
World’s first enhanced geothermal power plant completed in just 23 months
全球首座增强型地热发电厂仅用 23 个月建成
Geothermal company Fervo Energy announced Thursday morning that it had started selling electricity from its Cape Station power plant to the grid on September 30, one day ahead of schedule. With it, Fervo becomes the first enhanced geothermal company to reach a key commercial milestone. 地热能公司 Fervo Energy 周四上午宣布，其 Cape Station 发电厂已于 9 月 30 日提前一天开始向电网输送电力。至此，Fervo 成为首家达成这一关键商业里程碑的增强型地热能公司。
The power plant synchronized with the grid about a week ago, bringing online the first third of what will soon become a 100-megawatt power plant. The entire site could be much larger, though, with the potential to generate as much as 4 gigawatts of electricity, Fervo previously told TechCrunch. 该发电厂在大约一周前与电网实现同步，目前已上线了未来 100 兆瓦发电厂的三分之一产能。Fervo 此前曾向 TechCrunch 表示，整个站点的规模未来可能更大，发电潜力高达 4 吉瓦。
“No team has ever built a project like this anywhere in the world, and we did it ahead of schedule,” Fervo co-founder and CEO Tim Latimer said in a statement. From groundbreaking to commercial operations, the first block at Cape Station took 23 months to complete. As Fervo refines its process, it is aiming to complete future blocks in as little as 18 months. Fervo 联合创始人兼首席执行官 Tim Latimer 在一份声明中表示：“全球范围内还没有任何团队建造过这样的项目，而我们提前完成了任务。”从破土动工到投入商业运营，Cape Station 的首个区块仅耗时 23 个月。随着 Fervo 不断优化流程，其目标是将未来区块的建设周期缩短至 18 个月。
That sort of speed to power should appeal to power-starved data center operators, who have been scouring every part of the energy sector for generating capacity. Geothermal can also be developed in phases, similar to how data centers are developed, allowing hyperscalers to bring racks online as demand ramps up. Google, Southern California Edison, and others have committed to buying power from Fervo’s Cape Station project. 这种快速供电的能力对于电力紧缺的数据中心运营商极具吸引力，他们一直在能源领域的各个角落寻找发电产能。地热能还可以分阶段开发，这与数据中心的建设方式类似，使超大规模数据中心运营商能够随着需求的增长逐步增加服务器机架。谷歌、南加州爱迪生公司（Southern California Edison）及其他机构已承诺购买 Fervo Cape Station 项目的电力。
Fervo is one of several companies developing enhanced geothermal power plants. While traditional geothermal power taps heat sources close to the surface, Fervo and its peers are drilling deeper because deeper rock is hotter, opening more opportunities for development. Fervo 是开发增强型地热发电厂的几家公司之一。传统的地热能利用的是地表附近的热源，而 Fervo 及其同行则通过钻探更深的地层来获取热量，因为深层岩石温度更高，从而开辟了更多的开发机会。
Fervo went public in May in an upsized IPO that raised $1.9 billion. It was founded in 2017, bringing drilling techniques and technologies from the oil and gas sector to the development of new geothermal resources. As a startup, the company raised more than $1.3 billion from investors, including Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Congruent Ventures, and Capricorn Investment Group. Fervo 于今年 5 月通过扩大规模的首次公开募股（IPO）上市，筹集了 19 亿美元。该公司成立于 2017 年，将石油和天然气行业的钻探技术引入了新型地热资源的开发中。作为一家初创公司，该公司已从 Breakthrough Energy Ventures、Congruent Ventures 和 Capricorn Investment Group 等投资者处筹集了超过 13 亿美元的资金。