Shares of Fervo Energy rose on Thursday after the Bill Gates-backed geothermal energy company announced its flagship geothermal development has successfully generated electricity and fed it into the grid for the first time.
Fervo Energy stock advanced 1.9% to $16.63. Shares were up about 8% in September and were on pace for their best monthly performance on record, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
The stock made its trading debut on May 13, and had declined 55% since then as of the closing bell on Wednesday.
The investor excitement on Thursday came after the company said its geothermal development in Utah had achieved "first power," marking the first time a utility-scale enhanced geothermal development had reached the milestone "anywhere in the world."
Fervo Energy now has an operating geothermal power plant that's selling electricity to the grid. The company expects the 100 megawatt development to reach its contractual commercial operations date by Oct. 1.
The project is in its first phase. The company expects an additional 400 megawatts to come online in 2028. Fully contracted offtake is expected to be 900 megawatts, or enough power for about 1 million U.S. homes annually, according to Fervo.
"This is a gamechanger for the geothermal industry," CEO Tim Latimer said in the media release. "We are just getting started."
It's certainly good news for both the company and investors, as Fervo has already inked an energy deal.
Fervo Energy earlier in September signed a power deal with Alphabet-owned Google.
The energy agreement between Fervo and Google is for 396 megawatts and will see the geothermal energy company provide power to the tech giant from the Utah project.
As part of the deal, Google also will have the choice to expand the agreement by June 2030 by about 600 megawatts, for a total of about 1 gigawatt.
Fervo in June also announced an agreement with Nvidia and Pacific Northwest Laboratory to develop a next-generation digital platform for geothermal drilling operations.
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