Geothermal energy startup Mazama Energy has raised $135 million in a Series B funding round to advance its work on generating electricity from extremely hot underground rocks. 

The funding round was oversubscribed and will support the company’s efforts to develop horizontal wells capable of producing significant amounts of electricity.

Mazama plans to drill wells into super hot rocks and expects each well to have the potential to generate up to 15 megawatts of electricity. 

The company intends to begin electricity generation next year and estimates that its first site in Oregon could eventually have the potential to produce up to 10 gigawatts of electricity.

The company is targeting underground temperatures of about 750 degrees Fahrenheit, or 400 degrees Celsius.

At such high temperatures and pressures, water can become a supercritical fluid capable of carrying substantially more energy than conventional steam used in traditional geothermal systems.

Mazama has already drilled beyond 10,000 feet and plans to reach approximately 15,000 feet underground. 

The company expects its first Oregon development to be completed by 2030, with a projected generation capacity of about 200 megawatts. It has also secured land for a second development.

The latest funding round was led by Centaurus Capital and Doerr Capital, with participation from ConocoPhillips, Shell Ventures, Khosla Ventures and Gates Frontier, among other investors. 

The development of enhanced geothermal technology is attracting increasing attention as demand for reliable electricity grows, particularly from data centres and other energy intensive industries.

Source: TechCrunch