Kaishan Geothermal Business Subsidiary Starts Developent of Next Generation Geothermal Resources
November 18, 2021
On October 27th, Open Mountain Energy, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kaishan Co., Ltd., an American geothermal development company, and Fervo Energy Company, an American next generation geothermal development company, signed a memorandum of understanding.
As we all know, geothermal power is an “advanced clean energy” that can be used as base-load power, and its availability exceeds 80%, and the availability of geothermal power stations built with Kaishan technology is as high as 95%. In the era of “carbon neutrality”, geothermal power is getting more and more attention and favor. The disadvantage is that geothermal resources are relatively limited, making geothermal power unable to become the mainstream clean energy. However, new technology is unlocking geothermal in new places. Geothermal, with the right technology, has nearly 30 times that of all oil, natural gas and coal reserves. Once the development technology is broken, it is expected to become the mainstream renewable energy.
On October 19th, Chairman Cao Kejian met with Fervo Energy CTO Dr. Jack Norbeck in the OME office in Reno, Nevada, USA. Dr. Norbeck is one of the founders of Fervo Energy. The founding of the company originated from his research results on next generation geothermal development when he was studying for a Ph.D. in Stanford-the invention of multi-stage, geothermal flow control. As a start-up company, Fervo Energy has completed two rounds of financing of more than US$40 million, and has received more than US$10 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy. The two parties agreed to first develop a 10MW geothermal project on the edge of the Star Peak geothermal lake. Once successful, the two parties will begin a five-year joint venture. During the joint venture, multiple geothermal projects will be developed with a total power generation target of at least 100MW.
Prior to this, the general manager of the company, Dr. Tang Yan, had a technical exchange with the team of Dr. Jack. The two parties confirmed that Kaishan is responsible for the power station module design and Fervo is responsible for the drilling module design. The two parties will jointly develop and demonstrate their respective advanced module designs. At the same time, the development direction is to first develop on the edge of the existing geothermal lake, expand the area of the geothermal lake, and increase the output of the geothermal field.
Geothermal resources in China are also extremely rich, and once mature development technology is available, it is expected to become a strategic alternative energy source. At present, due to the limited domestic geothermal resources, our company cannot obtain the resources and cannot participate in domestic geothermal development. Once advanced drilling technology becomes mature, our company will have the opportunity to participate in the development of renewable energy with great domestic demand. The vision of “leading clean energy developer” becomes possible.