Geothermal Power for Data Centers: Enhanced Geothermal, Clean Tariffs and Siting in the West

Data centers run at high load factor, so a buyer trying to match consumption with clean energy hour by hour needs supply that does not stop at night or in calm weather. Geothermal plants produce steady output from underground heat, which is why it is often grouped with nuclear as “clean firm” power. Google described its Nevada tariff as a way to buy 24/7 clean energy from new resources, and analysts saw it as firm, dispatchable renewable power that avoids overbuilding solar and adding gas.²

The constraint is scale and geography. Most U.S. geothermal plants are in the western states and Hawaii, where geothermal resources lie close to the surface, and California generates the most electricity from it; The Geysers in Northern California is the largest known dry steam field in the world.¹ DOE’s 2024 Pathways to Commercial Liftoff report argues that next-generation techniques could expand U.S. geothermal to about 90 GW by 2050, roughly twenty times today’s fleet.⁵

For site selection, geothermal matters in two ways: as a clean firm resource a utility can add for a data center customer, and occasionally as a reason to locate a campus near a resource. This guide covers both, with more weight on the first, which is how nearly all current deals work.

Conventional hydrothermal plants need hot water or steam in naturally permeable rock, which limits them to specific fields. DOE’s Liftoff report defines next-generation geothermal as enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) or closed-loop systems, which borrow drilling methods from oil and gas to create or bypass reservoirs in hot rock that conventional plants cannot use.⁵ The report put the investment needed for initial liftoff of 2–5 GW at $20–25 billion through 2030.⁵

EGS developers have also benefited from public research. DOE’s FORGE field laboratory near Milford in Beaver County, Utah, was set up to develop and test technologies to create, sustain and monitor EGS reservoirs.¹² Fervo’s Cape Station is in the same county.³ The geology that suits EGS is broader than conventional fields, but it still favors the hot, thin crust of the Great Basin and other western regions.

Fervo’s first Cape Station plant synchronized to the grid on September 24, 2026 and declared commercial operation on September 30, one day before its contractual date, after 23 months of construction.³ It was described as the first greenfield enhanced geothermal development in the world to reach contractual commercial operation.³ The first “GeoBlock” produces 33 MW net; Phase I is about 100 MW across three blocks, with the other two expected by January 1, 2027, and Phase II, a further 400 MW, is under construction for 2028.³

The project reports about 900 MW of contracted offtake and permitting for expansion up to 2 GW.³ For data center planners, the point is less this one site than the proof that EGS can be built on a schedule and financed. It also shows the pace: even fast EGS adds capacity in tens to hundreds of megawatts over several years, against single campus requests of a gigawatt or more. Treat geothermal as one part of a supply portfolio, alongside the options in our renewable procurement guide.

Google and NV Energy asked Nevada regulators in June 2024 to approve a Clean Transition Tariff (CTT). Under it, NV Energy buys power from Fervo’s 115 MW Corsac Station enhanced geothermal project and supplies it to Google at a set rate, and Google receives credit for the project’s energy and capacity on the bills for its Storey County data centers, offsetting demand charges.² At filing, Reuters reported the deal would raise geothermal supply for Google’s Nevada operations from 3.5 MW to 115 MW in about six years.¹³

The structure matters because it is a utility tariff rather than a private contract. The customer pays a premium equal to the difference between the new clean resource and the “but-for” mix the utility would otherwise have procured, the tariff requires a minimum monthly load of 5 MW, and contract terms are meant to keep other customers from paying any part of the project even if it underperforms or the customer uses less power than expected.² The Public Utilities Commission of Nevada approved it in 2025.⁴ Fervo has said the deal prompted outreach from dozens of other hyperscalers and AI companies seeking clean firm power.¹⁴

For a developer, a CTT-style tariff can make a utility territory more attractive by giving the large customer a path to new clean firm supply inside a regulated utility. Compare it with sleeved and virtual deals in our guide to power purchase agreements, and with hourly accounting in 24/7 carbon-free energy.

Meta has signed two separate 150 MW geothermal agreements. In August 2024 it agreed to buy up to 150 MW of new geothermal power from Sage Geosystems, which uses a geopressured approach, with the first phase targeted for 2027 at a site east of the Rocky Mountains still to be chosen.¹⁵ In June 2025 it signed a two-phase, 150 MW agreement with XGS Energy for a closed-loop project to supply the PNM grid and Meta’s New Mexico data centers, with both phases projected to operate by 2030.¹¹ Meta described the XGS deal as an agreement to advance geothermal development, not yet a power purchase contract.¹¹

Announced dates are targets. Before treating any of these as available supply for a nearby site, check the utility’s integrated resource plan and interconnection queue, and our New Mexico and Nevada guides.

Much of the West’s geothermal resource lies on federal land, so the Bureau of Land Management sets the pace for exploration and leasing. BLM has moved to speed geothermal development, including a categorical exclusion under NEPA for qualifying exploration that removes the need for a full environmental review, while still checking for extraordinary circumstances such as impacts to endangered species or cultural resources.⁸ See federal land for AI data centers for the land side.

Two technical risks recur in EGS. The first is induced seismicity: DOE issued a protocol for addressing induced seismicity from EGS in 2012 and a complementary best practices document in 2014, and project mitigation plans follow them, starting with screening and community outreach.⁹ The second is water. A 2026 Utah State University Extension review reports that recent Utah geothermal projects do not use fresh water and that new well designs are expected to cut use of brackish water.¹⁰ Ask any developer for its seismic monitoring plan and water source; our seismic risk guide covers the data center side.

Placing a campus right next to a geothermal plant is rarely necessary and often impractical. Good resources tend to be remote, plants are smaller than large campuses, and the plant usually sells into the grid. The more common pattern is a campus in a utility territory that is adding geothermal, linked by transmission. Where a direct connection is considered, the issues in co-locating data centers with power plants and behind-the-meter supply apply.

The 2025 budget law, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill, treated geothermal more favorably than wind and solar. Geothermal Rising reported that it preserves the full Section 48E investment and Section 45Y production tax credits for projects beginning construction by 2033, with a phase-down through 2036.⁶ By contrast, the law ends investment tax credit eligibility for wind and solar projects placed in service after December 31, 2027.⁷ Because the credits lower the cost of new geothermal, they also lower the premium a customer pays under a tariff that charges the difference between a new clean resource and the utility’s “but-for” mix.² Longer credit runway also supports the financing of geothermal projects a utility might add for data center customers; confirm eligibility for a specific project with tax counsel.

1. 01Is the geothermal supply a utility tariff, a PPA or a direct connection, and who carries the risk if the plant runs late or underperforms?²
2. 02What capacity is operating today, and what is only contracted or permitted?³
3. 03Does the serving utility offer, or plan to offer, a clean transition style tariff, and what minimum load does it require?²
4. 04For any plant near the site, what is the seismic monitoring and mitigation plan?⁹
5. 05What water does the plant use, and does it compete with the data center’s cooling supply?¹⁰
6. 06Is the project on federal land, and where is it in BLM leasing and review?⁸

Geothermal rarely decides a site by itself, but it can tip a choice between western utility territories. For a broader regional view, see our Mountain West guide and hydropower and data centers. If you want an outside read on a specific parcel’s power path, you can get a site reviewed.