Geothermal commissioning Mazama Energy raised $135 million in an oversubscribed Series B, the startup said Thursday.
The new financing will help the company develop horizontal wells in superhot rock capable of generating 15 megawatts of electricity per well.
Mazama plans to start generating electricity next year and said its first site in Oregon is capable of producing 10 gigawatts of electricity. This is a sharp upward revision to the company’s estimate. last yearwhen investor Vinod Khosla claimed the site had the potential to produce 5 gigawatts.
Enhanced geothermal startups are emerging as the dark horse in the battle to power AI data centers and other big loads on the grid. While technology companies and data center developers have been supporting natural gas, geothermal startups have been rapidly advancing their technology.
Unlike previous geothermal projects, enhanced geothermal startups are targeting deeper, hotter rocks. Mazama, for example, has drilled more than 10,000 feet in 15 days on its way to about 15,000 feet deep. At those depths, the company can access heat of 400°C (750°F), which at high pressures turns water into a “supercritical” fluid that is neither completely liquid nor completely gaseous, a state that allows it to absorb much more energy than ordinary steam. Mazama said that will allow each well to produce up to 10 times more energy than traditional geothermal technologies.
Given the depths Mazama is targeting, the potential reward is significant. Harnessing just 1% of the world’s superhot rock could generate more than 63 terawatts of electricity. according to the University of Twente and the Clean Air Task Force.
While work on its Oregon site is still in the early stages, the startup has already secured land for a second development. Mazama aims to complete development of the first site by 2030, at which time it should generate 200 megawatts of electricity.
The new round was led by Centaurus Capital and Doerr Capital, with participation from ConocoPhillips and Shell Ventures. Existing investors including Khosla Ventures and Gates Frontier returned, and new investors SiteGround Capital, H. Barton Asset Management, and the Jeffrey and Marieke Rothschild Foundation also joined the round.
Mazama was incubated at Khosla Ventures.
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