Over the last several years, we've spent most of our time building rather than talking. As Eavor moves from technology development into large-scale commercialization as a technology licensor, we want to share a little more about our business. This extended analysis is part of that shift.
This, and future articles will explore what we've built, what we've learned, where the technology is going, the commercialization of our product, and how we think closed-loop geothermal fits into the future global energy system. The goal is to provide a technical and commercial perspective grounded in first-hand experience.
This technical update focuses on the Geretsried project: what we achieved technically, the challenges we faced, and why we believe it materially changes the commercial outlook for geothermal energy.
TLDR
Eavor's technology is what many would consider a "holy grail" in energy: cost competitive, secure, geographically scalable, dispatchable, locally sourced, and low carbon all at the same time.
The technology works, which we proved with the first loop at Geretsried. It is cost competitive today for district heating or in certain power markets. And we have a clear line-of-sight to "geothermal anywhere" (<$75/MWh electricity cost in average geothermal gradients), by continuing down a typical learning curve and by building Eavor-Loop deeper.
What we do and why
The world increasingly needs energy systems that are secure, scalable, dispatchable, locally sourced, and low carbon all at the same time. Although this is a core challenge for our civilization, very few technologies can realistically satisfy all of those constraints simultaneously.
Eavor's technology is one of them. Our mission is to enable clean geothermal energy almost everywhere.
Our approach is based on standardized closed-loop geothermal systems ("Eavor-Loops") that do not rely on rare geological hotspots, permeable reservoirs, or hydrothermal resources. Instead, Eavor-Loop functions as a large-scale subsurface heat exchanger; essentially an engineered underground radiator constructed deep within the Earth's crust.
The important distinction is that the system works in the broad range of geological conditions that exist across much of the world, not just in exceptional geothermal locales.
That creates a very different commercial opportunity. The same core technology can scale from district heating systems for small communities to multi-gigawatt projects supporting industrial facilities and data centers.
Just as importantly, the technology avoids many of the constraints facing other large-scale energy solutions. We don't have the same regulatory or stakeholder concerns as nuclear SMRs. We do not rely on fracking. Water consumption is very low. Surface land use is limited. We don't use rare earth metals. We have no ongoing fuel requirement. The supply chain is completely anchored in North America, Europe, and Japan.
The combined effect of these attributes means we own the technology high ground; it is exactly what the market wants, whether it is for critical district heating infrastructure or baseload power for German society, power for Japan, or power for global data centers. In many ways, Eavor draws comparisons to fusion energy, with one key difference Eavor's tech works today.
Naturally, claims like this invite skepticism, and rightly so. Several articles and analyses have attempted to assess Eavor's technology and economics, often without access to the underlying technical, commercial, or contextual information. We hope this extended update provides useful information to support future analysis.
There are three main questions that should be asked. This update will address the first in detail, while providing a brief treatment of questions two and three (more updates to come on those).
- Does the technology work?
- What is the cost of energy now and how will it trend in the future?
- Can Eavor realistically execute at global scale?
In summary:
- Yes. We've already demonstrated the core technology at a meaningful scale. Each lateral pair we've drilled is the same scale for large commercial projects. The system works.
- The economics are already competitive in European district heating, or certain power markets with high gradients, based on the performance of the last two lateral pairs drilled at Geretsried. By taking advantage of the learning curve (Wright's law), and maturing existing deep drilling technology we have clear line of sight to be competitive for power in average geothermal gradients everywhere (less than $75/ MWh power price).
- Yes, by leveraging existing supply chains and a global network of partners. One of the key enablers is Eavor's technology licensing business model. By working alongside world-class partners, we can leverage existing global capabilities, supply chains, and operational expertise rather than trying to build everything ourselves.
Does the technology work?
Geretsried Project Overview
Geretsried is our first commercial-scale Eavor-Loop project. It is situated on the site of a failed traditional geothermal project in Bavaria, Germany. Wells were previously drilled attempting to produce hot water from the subsurface and found that the rock was "hot but dry". This is a key benefit of Eavor-Loop technology in that it harvests geothermal energy in areas previously thought (or, in this case, previously shown) to be impossible.
Geretsried is our first-of-a-kind or "FOAK" project. FOAK is a term used in clean tech to describe the very difficult task of financing and building the first project with novel technology. It is capital intensive and scale brings its own difficulties with new technology.
We had previously built "Eavor-Lite", a proof-of-concept demonstration project in Alberta. Geretsried moves the system into commercial-scale, FOAK field execution.
Geretsried was originally designed for four Eavor-Loops, each with 12 lateral pairs approximately 6 km long, giving approximately 72 km of total reservoir exposure. These Eavor-Loops would provide combined heat and power to the surrounding municipalities. As previously published, the project was designed for nameplate capacities of 8.2 MW electricity (64 MW thermal), and the surface facility was designed accordingly.
The heat produced by the Eavor-Loops is directed to either the power plant or to district heating offtakers. For the first few years, all heat harvested from the earth is directed to the ORC power plant and converted to electricity. Heat from the project will be eventually sold to offtakers, including the local municipality of Geretsried. However, district heating utilities do not usually commit to critical infrastructure using new technologies that are not derisked; this is why it's so important to prove the technology and derisk the "resource" with a first-of-a-kind loop.
Geretsried serves three strategic purposes, outlined below, which have all been achieved.
