105. Geothermal: Earth, Wind and Fire – Redefining Energy podcast

Geothermal has been around for decades and always considered part of the Energy Transition. Unfortunately, its development has been limited to very specific geographical location (US West Coast, Iceland, Japan, Philippines, Indonesia), basically the Ring of Fire. Those historical techniques, called “hydrothermal” have proven quite niche and, in the US, only represented 4GW of capacity or less than 0.32% of the global fleet.

We believe the whole sector is on the cusp of an exponential growth, as new drilling techniques are now arriving at maturity. “Advanced geothermal”, based on the Oil & Gas expertise in fracking and horizontal drilling can be installed pretty much everywhere. It aims to provide much-needed 24/7 clean electricity and heat at competitive costs and small footprint. The recent successes of a start up called Fervo Energy have been very publicized.

There are also space-age new technologies like plasma and loop. Such a great universe of possibility.

Our guest, Cindy Taff is a seasoned geothermal developer who leads a startup called Sage Geosystems. Sage is a Houston-based technology company focused on energy storage and geothermal solutions for a sustainable energy future. Their long-duration energy storage solutions are ready to scale now at a cost that beats pumped hydropower storage and lithium-ion batteries.

Prior Sage, Cindy had a 35-year career in the O&G industry, most recently as VP of Shell’s global Unconventional Wells operations where she led a team of over 350 Shell staff and 1,200 contractors across five countries.

Alongside Wind and Solar, Geothermal was the missing piece to recreate Earth, Wind and Fire, the holy trinity of renewables. But it’s all going to change from now on.

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