Bill Gates’ $1 billion clean energy fund has unveiled its inaugural list of portfolio companies. Among the startups that have won the confidence of the Microsoft Corp. founder, as reported by MIT Technology Review, are:
- Fervo Energy, which is applying fracking techniques to the geothermal industry in hopes of converting more of Earth’s latent heat into an energy source
- Form Energy, a grid-storage startup
- QuantumScape, solid-state battery company
- Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a nuclear fusion company spun out of MIT
- DMC Biotechnologies, a biofuels firm
- Pivot Bio, whose technology promises to develop replacements for nitrogen fertilizer
- CarbonCure, which has a plan for storing carbon dioxide in concrete
- Quidnet, which makes subsurface pumped hydro storage
- Zero Mass Water, whose technology can pull water from air
The amount committed to each company was not disclosed.
If Fervo Energy’s technologies work as intended, says MIT Technology Review, they could enable existing geothermal sites to boost electricity production, or allow entirely new areas to tap into heat within the Earth’s crust. Increasing geothermal generation could ease the broader shift to cleaner energy systems because it can provide always-on power or ramp-up as needed, unlike variable wind and solar farms.
Geothermal energy is a clean, sustainable form of energy radiating from the Earth’s crust, ranging from the shallow ground to hot water and hot rock found a few miles beneath the Earth’s surface. Go deeper into the earth and molten rock called magma can be found emitting extremely high temperatures. Geothermal energy warms underground reservoirs, moving water toward the surface, in liquid and gas form, through a network of porous rocks and fractures. Geothermal plants tap that energy by drilling deep wells to access the steam to spin turbines and produce electricity. Technology Review explains geothermal energy is available only in regions with the ideal combination of underground heat, fluid and permeable rock. Many places meet the first two conditions but not the last. Presumably, Fervo Energy’s fracking technology will create more access to the steam by fracturing the rock to increase its permeability.
An MIT study concluded modest federal investment in research and development in this area could add more than 100 gigawatts of new generating capacity for clean energy in the United States within 50 years — the equivalent of 50 Hoover Dams.
Mike Consol (m.consol@irei.com) is editor of Real Assets Adviser. Follow him on Twitter @mikeconsol to read his latest postings.