Fervo Energy and Turboden Sign 1.7 GW Turbine Framework Agreement, the Largest ORC Supply Deal in Geothermal History
A three-year deal to supply Organic Rankine Cycle turbines for up to 35 of Fervo's 50 MW GeoBlock power plants marks the geothermal sector's first gigawatt-scale equipment procurement and arrives as Cape Station nears first power delivery.
Overview
Fervo Energy and Turboden America LLC announced on 7 April 2026 a three-year framework agreement under which Turboden will supply Organic Rankine Cycle turbines for up to 35 of Fervo’s standardized 50-megawatt GeoBlock power plants, representing a combined capacity of 1,750 MW of carbon-free, dispatchable power. The commitment is the largest ORC supply agreement ever signed for geothermal energy and signals that the enhanced geothermal systems sector is moving from pilot-scale demonstrations to industrial-scale procurement.
Turboden America is a subsidiary of Italy-based Turboden S.p.A., which is itself part of the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Group. The deal builds on a prior agreement in which Turboden was selected to supply ORC units for three 50 MW GeoBlocks at Fervo’s Cape Station development in Beaver County, Utah.
Cape Station Nears First Power
The two companies are currently in the advanced commissioning stage of Fervo’s Phase I project at Cape Station, with startup expected later this year. Phase I targets delivery of roughly 100 MW to the grid by early 2027. Phase II is planned to bring an additional 400 MW online by 2028, and the site’s permits allow up to 2 GW of total development.
Cape Station’s output is fully contracted through power purchase agreements with Southern California Edison, Shell Energy, and several community choice aggregators. Fervo closed $421 million in non-recourse debt financing for Phase I in March 2026.
“Expanding our work with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is a key step in scaling geothermal to meet rising U.S. power demand,” Fervo CEO Tim Latimer said in the announcement.
Why ORC Technology Matters for EGS
Organic Rankine Cycle systems use a working fluid with a lower boiling point than water to convert moderate-temperature heat into electricity. Enhanced geothermal wells typically produce fluid at temperatures between 150 and 200 degrees Celsius, a range where conventional steam turbines lose efficiency but ORC units can operate effectively. The technology produces zero direct water consumption and zero direct carbon emissions during electricity generation.
Turboden has deployed more than 450 ORC plants across over 50 countries since 1980. Its backing by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries gives the partnership access to global manufacturing and supply chain capabilities that Fervo has identified as essential for meeting its development timeline.
Turboden President and CEO Paolo Bertuzzi said geothermal energy would be “essential in stabilizing a strained power grid with clean, firm energy”.
Data Center Demand Drives the Scale-Up
The agreement arrives amid surging demand for firm, round-the-clock clean power from data center operators running large-scale AI training and inference workloads. Unlike solar and wind, geothermal provides baseload generation with capacity factors above 90 percent, making it attractive to facilities that cannot tolerate intermittent supply.
Fervo is already working with Google and NV Energy on 115 MW of geothermal capacity for data centers in Nevada, and SAGE Geosystems has signed a separate 150 MW agreement with Meta. The U.S. Department of Energy projects that next-generation geothermal could deliver up to 150 GW of cost-effective capacity in the coming decades, a figure that would represent a dramatic expansion from the country’s current installed base of roughly 2.7 GW.
Federal Support and the Path Ahead
The DOE opened a $171.5 million funding opportunity on 25 February 2026 for next-generation geothermal field-scale tests and exploration drilling, with full applications due 30 April 2026. Meanwhile, researchers at MIT have noted that drilling costs remain the sector’s most significant bottleneck, accounting for 30 to 57 percent of total project costs. Advances in horizontal drilling, hydraulic stimulation, and novel technologies such as millimeter-wave drilling are being pursued to bring those costs down.
If Fervo’s GeoBlock model proves replicable at scale, the Turboden framework agreement positions both companies to deploy standardized geothermal power plants at a pace and volume that the sector has never attempted. The first test of that proposition will come when Cape Station begins delivering power to the grid later this year.