When Tim Latimer cofounded Fervo Energy in 2017, geothermal power was a tough sell to investors—expensive, risky, and geographically constrained. Since then, as CEO, Latimer has raised more than $2 billion to prove that geothermal can be unlocked almost anywhere.
Using techniques adapted from the oil and gas industries, Fervo drills vertically into hot rock and then horizontally through it, creating wells through which it circulates water, generating electricity with the resulting heat. Later this year, the initial phase of Cape Station, Fervo’s first large-scale project, will begin sending power to the grid, scaling to 100 megawatts by 2027.
Latimer, a 2026 Fast Company Visionary of the Year, began his career as a drilling engineer for fossil fuels, but quickly became “obsessed with this idea that the drilling techniques we were using would actually be transformative for the world of geothermal as well,” he says.
He persuaded the Bill Gates-backed Breakthrough Energy Ventures to lead the startup’s $11 million Series A in 2019. In 2023, Fervo worked with Google to supply a Nevada data center with carbon-free energy. On the cusp of delivering energy at scale—with utility company Southern California Edison among its first clients—Fervo is now valued at more than $3 billion and went public on Nasdaq in May, raising $1.89 billion.
Unlike wind and solar, the power from Cape Station—sited in Beaver County in southwestern Utah—will be available 24/7. “When you start adding something to the grid mix that’s affordable and works around the clock,” Latimer says, “that’s going to be a huge asset to meeting our country’s energy needs.”
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