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Utah presentation highlights vast, largely untapped geothermal energy potential
Summary
A presentation from the Utah Office of Tourism outlined the state’s current geothermal capacity, described enhanced and advanced geothermal technologies, and named projects — including Utah FORGE and Fervo Energy’s Cape Station — that aim to expand commercial geothermal power.
A staff member from the Utah Office of Tourism said Utah ranks third in the nation for utility-scale geothermal electricity generation and briefly described the state’s current and potential geothermal resources.
The presentation said Utah’s existing geothermal plants have a combined capacity of 73 megawatts and generated 410 gigawatt-hours in 2024 — “enough to power about 38,000 homes,” the presenter said — while the state’s undeveloped geothermal resource is estimated at 49,400 megawatts, which the presentation said could power nearly 49 million homes.
The presentation explained the technologies in use and under development. It said all three of Utah’s current geothermal plants are traditional hydrothermal systems; two — named CoFort and Thermo in the presentation — use binary-cycle technology that transfers heat from geothermal fluids to a secondary "working fluid" that vaporizes to drive a turbine. The Blundell plant was described as using deep geothermal fluid that partially flashes to steam to drive a turbine, with remaining fluid processed through a binary cycle and reinjected to support reservoir pressure.
The presenter described enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) as engineered reservoirs created in hot rock that lacks permeability. The University of Utah’s Utah Frontier Observatory for Research and Geothermal Energy (Utah FORGE) has been developing and testing EGS since 2015, the presentation said. Near Utah FORGE, the presenter named a commercial project it said is under development: Fervo Energy’s Cape Station, described as the first EGS site being developed for commercial electrical power generation. The presentation said Fervo plans a first phase to produce 90 megawatts by 2026 and a second phase to produce 400 megawatts by 2028.
The presentation also outlined so-called advanced geothermal systems (AGS), described as closed-loop systems in which two or more deep wells are connected and a working fluid circulates through the loop to capture heat and return to the surface to drive a binary cycle generator.
The presenter framed geothermal energy as a steady, baseload renewable source that does not have the intermittency of wind or solar. The presentation concluded that geothermal resources in Utah are "largely untapped" and that the state has significant expansion potential as EGS and AGS technologies are developed.
No formal actions, votes, or policy decisions were recorded in the presentation itself.
