Ep 122: Tim Latimer, Co-Founder & CEO of Fervo Energy
Today's guest is Tim Latimer, Co-Founder and CEO of Fervo Energy. Fervo Energy is a geothermal energy developer, that has developed technology that is more cost-effective than traditional methods. The company is commercializing technology to develop, own, and operate geothermal assets as a dispatchable foundation to a 100% clean energy future. Its technology incorporates proven cost-effective methods such as horizontal drilling and advanced fiber optic sensing to lower the cost and increase the productivity of geothermal development. This is the first episode that I've done putting geothermal front and center, and Tim does a great job in this discussion of providing an overview of geothermal technology. I learn why it matters, where it is in its evolution, where it needs to get to and the barriers holding it back. We also talk a bunch about Tim's journey from starting as a drilling engineer, working in the Permian and Eagle Four Basins, to now being laser-focused on thermal technology and the clean energy transition. I really enjoyed this one and I hope you do as well. Enjoy the show! You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at [email protected], where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.
Inevitable · Jason Jacobs, Tim Latimer
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Show Notes
Today's guest is Tim Latimer, Co-Founder and CEO of Fervo Energy.
This is the first episode that I've done putting geothermal front and center, and Tim does a great job in this discussion of providing an overview of geothermal technology. I learn why it matters, where it is in its evolution, where it needs to get to and the barriers holding it back. We also talk a bunch about Tim's journey from starting as a drilling engineer, working in the Permian and Eagle Four Basins, to now being laser-focused on thermal technology and the clean energy transition. I really enjoyed this one and I hope you do as well.
You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at [email protected], where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.
In today’s episode, we cover:
- What is Fervo and what was its genesis?
- The origins of Tim’s interest in climate change.
- Tim’s early work experience in the fossil fuel industry as an oil-drilling engineer.
- How the vision of energy independence and coal-alternatives enticed him to enter the oil industry.
- The epiphany that prompted him to leave the fossil fuel industry and explore geothermal energy.
- Tim’s realization that the bottleneck for geothermal development is financing not research.
- Tim’s experience at Stanford Graduate School of Business and his decision to go all in on Fervo Energy.
- How geothermal systems work and what has historically hampered development outside of select countries.
- Fervo’s new horizontal-drilling approach and heat-flow distribution technique.
- Fervo Energy’s business model and its services.
- How geothermal offers a carbon-free renewable energy without the challenges of intermittency.
- Goal of developing first operational facility by 2021.
- How lands rights are treated.
- How geothermal can compensate for the night-time intermittency issue that has come with the growth of solar energy.
- The role of storage as it relates to geothermal energy.
- How Tim sees areas of risk for Fervo.
- What success looks like for Fervo.
Links to topics discussed in this episode:
- Fervo Energy: https://www.fervoenergy.com/
- MIT: “The Future of Geothermal Energy”: http://energy.mit.edu/research/future-geothermal-energy/
- TomKat Center at Stanford: https://tomkat.stanford.edu/
- Cyclotron Road: https://www.cyclotronroad.org/
- California’s SB100 Regulation: https://www.energy.ca.gov/sb100
- Geothermal Risk Mitigation Fund For East Africa: https://grmf-eastafrica.org/
Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at [email protected].
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*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant