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Enhanced geothermal has had a promising few years, nudged forward by data centers\u2019 insatiable demand for electricity. Fervo Energy has landed deals<\/a> on those tailwinds, suggesting, but not guaranteeing that the company was through the \u201cvalley of death<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n The term describes when a startup has proven its tech, but hasn\u2019t raised enough money to show it can work profitably at scale. Many startups fail to ever move past this point, and end up dying off. <\/p>\n Exactly when a startup emerges from the valley of death is debatable. One measure is whether it can raise project finance debt that isn\u2019t tethered to the startup itself. Fervo has raised debt before, but today it announced a $421 million loan that is considered \u201cnon-recourse,\u201d which means that liability for the loan is tied to the specific project. Default would sink the project, not necessarily the company.\u00a0<\/p>\n Not that the project is in any danger. The financing is for Fervo\u2019s Cape Station power plant in Utah, which will begin operation this year before scaling to 100 megawatts in early 2027 and eventually 500 megawatts when fully built. All of the power has been bought at this point. <\/p>\n Fervo pointed out that non-recourse financing doesn\u2019t typically apply to first-of-a-kind facilities, which Cape Station is \u2014 sort of. While the site isn\u2019t fully developed, Fervo has data on over a dozen wells that it has drilled there. That undoubtedly helped the company seal the deal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n