An advanced geothermal project funded and developed by Google has begun pumping carbon-free electricity onto the Nevada grid to power the company's data centers there.

Geothermal energy was once confined in theory to areas of geothermal activity, but if one drills deep enough, there's extreme heat from the planet's core essentially everywhere to be harnessed to make steam and drive turbines to create carbon-free electricity 24 hours a day when the wind isn't blowing and the sun isn't shining.

For this reason, Google made an early bet on this enhanced geothermal technology, and partnered with the Utah-based Fervo Energy, which uses drilling techniques from the oil and gas industry to create a first-of-its-kind power plant in Nevada.

WS reported that initial tests in July showed that the technology was working, in which the hypothesized 3.5 megawatts were indeed being delivered.

A borehole was made 8,000 feet into the desert plains before being extended horizontally 3,000 feet. A second, shallower tunnel was drilled above it. As cold water is pumped into the lower shaft, heat causes it to rise through cracks in the rock created by fracking into the upper shaft, a process which heats it well above supercritical temperatures of 200°F.

Once topside, the superheated fluid boils another well of water to create steam to drive a turbine and power Google's Henderson City data center with a combination of storage and solar power.

"We're really hoping that this could be a springboard to much, much more advanced geothermal power available to us and others around the world," Michael Terrell, who leads decarbonization efforts at Google, told AP.

The backing has spurred on Fervo Energy to greater heights, and the company recently completed the drilling phase for a 400-megawatt energy project in Southern Utah.

While Google has only started with this project in Nevada, there's potential for geothermal to grow. The company recently announced a partnership with Project InnerSpace, a leading non-profit organization dedicated to the global development of geothermal energy, to accelerate the adoption of geothermal energy.

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