{"id":5738,"date":"2026-08-22T07:41:41","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T07:41:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5738"},"modified":"2026-08-22T07:41:41","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T07:41:41","slug":"powering-the-cloud-after-60-years-underground-ormats-geothermal-pivot-to-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5738","title":{"rendered":"Powering the cloud after 60 years underground: Ormat\u2019s geothermal pivot to AI"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Today, Ormat hopes to grow exponentially with the AI data center boom, aiming to build baseload, clean power plants throughout the Western United States utilizing both new technologies and old. The goal is called EGS\u2014enhanced geothermal systems\u2014marrying the traditional geothermal business with the newest oil-drilling and fracking techniques. The idea is that EGS will allow for the construction of next-generation geothermal power almost anywhere the customer desires by tapping into deeper, higher-temperature underground reservoirs much more easily.<\/p>\n

Read more Exclusive: Amazon quietly hiked prices on Echo, Fire TV, Kindle, and eero overnight to offset \u2018significant increases\u2019 in memory costs<\/a><\/p>\n

While the science is proven, Ormat and competitors are racing to show they can build the plants economically and efficiently enough to contend with other sources of power generation, including gas-fired power, renewables, and nuclear. That\u2019s why Ormat is launching two separate EGS pilot projects with different partners\u2014a geothermal startup, Sage Geosystems, and the century-old, largest oilfield services firm in the world, SLB. Ormat also is working closely with Google and data center developer Switch.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re in a very rare situation where all the stars are aligned exactly on time,\u201d Ormat CEO Doron Blachar told Fortune<\/em>. \u201cWe have the hyperscalers and the AI demand. This basically puts us in a situation where we see endless demand for our product. The more electricity we can generate, the more we sell, and we\u2019ve been doing a lot of exploration in the U.S. over the last few years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blachar\u2019s thesis is that Ormat already combines traditional geothermal growth and a newer battery energy storage business that\u2019s growing with renewable solar power installations nationwide. Even if the push into enhanced geothermal systems fails, he says, Ormat will be successful. But Blachar is confident that the EGS business\u2014the company\u2019s biggest potential growth driver\u2014will thrive and that Ormat is better positioned than any other geothermal player to do EGS at scale.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know how to buy land positions. We have [contracts] with hyperscalers, with utilities, for hundreds of megawatts,\u201d Blachar said. \u201cWe know how to get the permits. We know how to get the interconnections.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe uniqueness is we have all the ingredients to develop EGS. Once the pilots are successful, we\u2019ll start running,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

On Wall Street, Ormat is now most closely compared to EGS startup Fervo, which went public in May with the biggest clean energy IPO ever in the U.S. Fervo\u2019s market cap quickly jumped to $10 billion but, after some modest setbacks, has since plunged down to $5 billion, despite its strong longer-term potential.<\/p>\n

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Ormat, on the other hand, has seen its stock rise almost 20% in 12 months, up to a market cap of about $6.75 billion\u2014down a little from an all-time high in early June. And Blachar is quick to point out that Ormat is profitable outside of its pilot projects. Ormat posted revenues of $662.7 million for the first half of 2026, up 43% from last year, on a net profit of $71.2 million, up 4% year-on-year.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere is no company in the industry that can take advantage of EGS better than Ormat,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have been here for 60 years. We are big in power plants. We know how to build them efficiently and how to operate them. And once the pilots are successful\u2014either of them, or both of them\u2014we will be able to develop multiple EGS projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Steady growth before the sprint<\/h2>\n

Ormat was founded in Israel and grew globally before moving its headquarters to Reno, Nevada over 20 years ago.<\/p>\n

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Nevada is a hotspot for geothermal energy and both of its EGS pilots are located there. The pilot with Sage is at Ormat\u2019s Blue Mountain power plant in Nevada, while the SLB pilot is located at Ormat\u2019s Desert Peak plant. Ormat has also acquired new acreage in New Mexico, Oregon, and Idaho. Blachar said he\u2019s bullish on Texas too. Sage\u2019s milestone first pilot\u2014a precursor to its Ormat project\u2014just came online in August near San Antonio.<\/p>\n

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Blachar, who joined Ormat in 2013 as chief financial officer and became the CEO in 2020, still works out of his home city in Tel Aviv, and he speaks in thickly accented English, routinely traveling the world for Ormat projects, from Reno to Indonesia, Turkey, and New Zealand. Apart from the U.S., Indonesia is Ormat\u2019s largest targeted growth area.\u201cWe are developing [in Indonesia], but it is taking a longer time. The processes are longer, and we are much more cautious, versus the U.S. where we are willing to take more risk in this environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Ormat\u2019s power portfolio in operation worldwide is 1.85 gigawatts\u2014enough to power 1.4 million U.S. homes or roughly two large data center complexes. The 2028 growth target is to achieve up to 2.8 gigawatts through traditional geothermal and battery storage, not counting EGS.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s still small potatoes versus what EGS could potentially build underground. Ormat was developing roughly 100 megawatts of geothermal power per year, Blachar said. Each EGS project with a hyperscaler could easily be 500 megawatts.<\/p>\n

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There is less political doubt\u2014with Republicans attacking wind and solar and Democrats targeting fossil fuel emissions\u2014because geothermal is beloved by both parties for now. Democrats want the clean energy, and the GOP likes how traditional oil and gas companies profit from expanding into the geothermal business. SLB, for instance, is pushing to expand in geothermal, lending its expertise in subsurface analysis and drilling wells.<\/p>\n

Ormat\u2019s pilot projects with SLB and Sage will be drilled next and could be online by late 2027, Blachar said.\u201cOnce they finish, we will start developing EGS projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twenty years ago, Ormat experimented with EGS, but it was too costly and difficult, he said. The drilling technologies have rapidly advanced since then as U.S. oil producers can drill 5-mile-long horizontal wells underground to maximize oil and gas production volumes.<\/p>\n

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Earlier this year, Ormat launched its Ormega100 power plant unit, a standardized, simplified power plant design with fewer moving parts that is intended to scale up economically with EGS.<\/p>\n

\u201cEGS today is becoming a much more realistic outcome,\u201d Blachar said. \u201cWhen you take Ormat experience and business development in the design of a power plant, and the amount of land and positions we have in the U.S., we are going to take advantage of this new technology and grow much faster.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more China\u2019s onetime richest man has lost everything but creditors are still owed $300 billion<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ormat launched two next-gen geothermal projects with Sage Geosystems and SLB in Nevada.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[463],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-power"],"yoast_head":"\nPowering the cloud after 60 years underground: Ormat\u2019s geothermal pivot to AI - Cross Country Moving Team<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5738\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Powering the cloud after 60 years underground: Ormat\u2019s geothermal pivot to AI - Cross Country Moving Team\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ormat launched two next-gen geothermal projects with Sage Geosystems and SLB in Nevada.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5738\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cross Country Moving Team\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-22T07:41:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=5738#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=5738\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1b8121bfb9a1c55d1fff3fca675fceaa\"},\"headline\":\"Powering the cloud after 60 years underground: Ormat\u2019s geothermal pivot to AI\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-22T07:41:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=5738\"},\"wordCount\":1117,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=5738#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/fb691d0ac0b87fa000cd801b8fad9fd6.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"power\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=5738#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=5738\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=5738\",\"name\":\"Powering the cloud after 60 years underground: Ormat\u2019s geothermal pivot to AI - 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