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Tim Latimer

@timlatimer.bsky.social
7.1K followers 823 following 351 posts

Geothermal 🌋⚡️ CEO @ Fervo Energy HTX

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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
A lot of folks still have 2000-2010s era power prices in their heads as “normal” with an expectation that we will return to “normal” at some point. There are many reasons that isn’t true, but this is probably the biggest among them. We are in a new era of power prices.
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 20/07/2025
It was a great week this week at Fervo.
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
It’s wild that just a few years ago there were zero $1 trillion companies and now there are several in the $2, $3 and even now $4 trillion range.
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
The latest USGS geothermal is a great example of something people outside the resource industry often miss—how much of something there is is a function of how good the tech is. For just the Great Basin in the US: Base scenario: 135 GW Improved tech: 1400 GW pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2025/3027...
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
This is my philosophy of project development in a nutshell. www.deseret.com/environment/...
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 26/04/2025
There aren’t enough public companies (yet!) to have a true index of geothermal, but you can sometimes gain insights by looking at Ormat’s performance. It’s one of few companies in energy up this year. Make sense as geothermal has a more secure and domestic supply chain than other options.
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
openbrand.com/newsroom/blo...
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 19/04/2025
Fun history fact I learned on a recent @dkthomp.bsky.social Plain English podcast: over 1000 economists signed an open letter to Congress in 1930 urging them to not pass the Smoot Hawley Tariffs because it would increase prices and cause major job losses. econjwatch.org/File+downloa...
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
Imagine taking this approach to other safety items. “Just take a look at that bullet proof vest with all the marks on it where it stopped the bullets” “Just look at the dent in that motorcycle helmet”
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
Wow that’s not even the craziest quote. “It’s unsafe. Just take a stroll down 11th and look at the scuff marks on the barriers.” Literally the barriers to protect people have evidence that if they weren’t there cars would just be crossing through all the time! It’s this but for pedestrian safety
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
An iconic example of the silly debate about safe streets and media’s need to both sides it. On the one hand, data definitively shows 11th St. improvements led to a big safety improvement. On the other hand, some guy says “people speed everywhere.” www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston...
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
And progress is happening fast. Here is a recent photo from site. We are on track for delivery of first electrons in 2026. Geothermal is winning the race on clean, firm power and will enable huge improvements in grid reliability, affordability and sustainability.
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
The application of learning curves to geothermal, based on benchmarking from the oil and gas industry, was the insight upon which Fervo was founded. Here’s a paper I wrote on the topic in 2017. pangea.stanford.edu/ERE/pdf/IGAs...
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
We shared this slide at the end of Fervo Tech Day 2024 as a roadmap for how we see geothermal technology evolving. We’ve made a lot of progress since then. I’m gonna be excited to share even more breakthroughs from Fervo throughout the year. Stay tuned, progress is happening faster than ever.
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
It’s a game of technology vs. geology and tech has won pretty resoundingly over the last two decades. I’m sure you’ve got some anecdotes of past times, but that steep slope at the end shows pretty clearly that the economic wells are far from done.
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
This afternoon’s headline right on cue. (Or not, the baker Hughes numbers are notoriously noisy) finance.yahoo.com/news/us-oil-...
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
One thing to note about this that I’m seeing misreported in the media a lot this week: oil breakeven prices have a huge range. People keep quoting the below Dallas Fed survey to say prices are below the breakeven. Prices are below some breakevens, Tier 1 acreage is still profitable. It’s a curve.
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
This is a number where you will start to see declines in drilling activity pretty quickly if it sticks around.
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
Fascinating industry by industry rundown of how the tariffs would affect clean energy and climatetech in today’s CTVC newsletter. This point, on how reliant the nuclear fuel supply chain is reliant on imports, is under appreciated.
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 05/04/2025
I’ve found that checking the employee count data feature on LinkedIn is one of the most reliable ways of figuring out what’s really going on at a startup. Every shape tells a story.
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
A quick check in on oil field services stocks. Generally down ~50% YoY, with about ~20% decline in the last week.
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
Mentions of “uncertainty” in the Fed Beige Book at an all time high. Chart from @nathanielbullard.com.
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
A big story in energy currently is the diverging fates of oil and gas prices. Oil price has been in steady decline, with a clear recent trend downward driven by all the macro uncertainty. For natural gas the power demand thesis is overriding all other concerns. Feels like we are in a new era.
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
Whenever you think about the remarkable progress of geothermal, remember that this has been the level of public funding supporting the sector. In coming years I expect support to catch up with technologies like hydrogen and CCS and it will be transformational. carnegieendowment.orgundefined?lang=en
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 02/03/2025
Found a chart with 2024 data. The trend continues. www.canarymedia.com/articles/cle...
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 15/02/2025
Some headlines from the last few months. Seems like a good time for a reminder that Fervo Energy is hiring. Lots of open positions can be found here. fervoenergy.com/careers/
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 08/02/2025
The US active drilling rig count decline has started to level out, but it has stabilized at a much lower level than the baselines in the 2000s or 2010s. Lots of soft messaging from the OFS players in their earnings outlooks this month so this trend is unlikely to change.
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
As an example, Fervo’s Cape well test did 107 kg/s, about 60,000 barrels per day of flow. And since EGS reinjects all the fluid it produces, that flow rate can be sustained for decades. Compare to Permian wells at ~1000 bpd with rapid decline. Totally different reservoir concepts.
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
New Nature Review paper on geothermal out today. “enhanced geothermal is expected to achieve plant capital cost ($4500/kW) and LCOE ($80/MWh) that are competitive with market electricity prices by 2027.” 👀 www.nature.com/articles/s44...
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
My favorite slide in @nathanielbullard.com latest magnum opus. www.nathanielbullard.com/presentations
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
What’s fascinating about the reaction to the DeepSeek news is that this is really on trend for what has been happening in the last decade of AI already. Quite the market reaction to a trend line that has been predictive for a decade. situational-awareness.ai/from-gpt-4-t...
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
The Activate Fellowship is such a special organization driving positive change in the world. Proud that Fervo is a part of this special group. www.activate.org/annual-report
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
Great new commentary on 24/7 Carbon Free Energy requirements from Google, @jessedjenkins.com, and others describing the virtuous cycle that leads to a cleaner grid. It’s simple: if you want 24/7 CFE, do 24/7 CFE. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
Big day for energy nerds everywhere. Congrats yall.
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 18/01/2025
A couple data points about growing momentum for geothermal. Heatmap News “insider survey” flags geothermal (and Fervo) as the most promising climatetech company, while CTVC’s 2025 outlook flagged geothermal as a breakout sector for 2025.
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 18/01/2025
A reminder that all the progress on geothermal in the US in the last few years has come with a tiny fraction of the level of US government support that resources like hydrogen and nuclear receive. If we are able to level the playing field, progress could happen radically faster.
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
In their recap of today’s Senate Confirmation Hearing for Energy Secretary Chris Wright, @heatmap.news highlights a growing theme in DC: broad, growing, bipartisan support for geothermal energy. heatmap.news/politics/wri...
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
Another interesting part of the report is a 4X+ increase in technical potential of geothermal compared to prior NREL analysis. As usual, when technology gets better, we find out we have more of a resource than we thought. 2024 vs. 2012 estimates below.
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
“We assumed ATB Advanced cost assumptions because several geothermal demonstration projects have already proven to be more cost effective than the most aggressive cost reduction trajectories.” From a new NREL reporting highlighting 15,000+ GW of geothermal potential. www.nrel.gov/docs/fy25ost...
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
If we don’t figure out how to build new clean things, by default, this new demand will be met by other sources.
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 06/01/2025
Reporting on geothermal, and energy in general, can be very sloppy. The fact that this is too high of a capital cost for geothermal isn’t as egregious as the idea of directly comparing wind and geothermal in $/MW when geothermal produces ~3X the energy per MW as wind.
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 03/01/2025
Comment from Dan Esposito.
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 03/01/2025
And even these estimates likely dramatically underestimate the potential of geothermal. We have found on our projects far greater power density than what is typically assumed in technical potential analysis of geothermal.
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 03/01/2025
Important Chart of the Week from @canarymedia.com. And when you look at something like this, remember that geothermal is a high capacity factor resource, so the energy potential is comparatively much larger than the other resources per TW. www.canarymedia.com/articles/geo...
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 30/12/2024
I was just about to post that! This chart should be on every researcher and policy makers wall.
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
It’s difficult to keep up when technology is rapidly evolving! The numbers they used are fairly accurate to our Project Red pilot that we published in 2023 but it was just September 2024 when we shared Cape costs. Here that is overlaid with the DOE Liftoff Report figures.
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
A delay in House of the Dragon was what got me thinking about this, which I don’t think has categorically different production value than Game of Thrones.
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
11/And we aren’t stopping there. The IEA outlined the prize for geothermal, a 800 GW, multi-trillion $ opportunity that can help secure affordable energy and address climate change. At Fervo we are excited to lead geothermal to realize this full potential. iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/fe8d1...
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
5/And the new funding is critical, because unlike other emerging energy technologies, the expectation is that geothermal innovation will be nearly completely private sector funded. This lack of funding has held geothermal back in the past. liftoff.energy.gov/wp-content/u...
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Tim Latimer @timlatimer.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
4/And this surge in funding couldn’t come soon enough. Data centers and other sources are driving an unprecedented demand for energy. Geothermal is a key player now in how much of that demand is actually met–and how clean it will be. gridstrategiesllc.com/wp-content/u...
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