Ep 122: Tim Latimer, Co-Founder & CEO of Fervo Energy

Monday 14 September 2020
00:00
57:14

Today's guest is Tim Latimer, Co-Founder and CEO of Fervo Energy.

This is the first episode that I've done putting geothermal front and center, and Tim does a great job in this discussion of providing an overview of geothermal technology. I learn why it matters, where it is in its evolution, where it needs to get to and the barriers holding it back. We also talk a bunch about Tim's journey from starting as a drilling engineer, working in the Permian and Eagle Four Basins, to now being laser-focused on thermal technology and the clean energy transition. I really enjoyed this one and I hope you do as well. 

You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at info@myclimatejourney.co, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

In today’s episode, we cover:

  • What is Fervo and what was its genesis?
  • The origins of Tim’s interest in climate change.
  • Tim’s early work experience in the fossil fuel industry as an oil-drilling engineer.
  • How the vision of energy independence and coal-alternatives enticed him to enter the oil industry.
  • The epiphany that prompted him to leave the fossil fuel industry and explore geothermal energy.
  • Tim’s realization that the bottleneck for geothermal development is financing not research.
  • Tim’s experience at Stanford Graduate School of Business and his decision to go all in on Fervo Energy.
  • How geothermal systems work and what has historically hampered development outside of select countries.
  • Fervo’s new horizontal-drilling approach and heat-flow distribution technique.
  • Fervo Energy’s business model and its services.
  • How geothermal offers a carbon-free renewable energy without the challenges of intermittency.
  • Goal of developing first operational facility by 2021.
  • How lands rights are treated.
  • How geothermal can compensate for the night-time intermittency issue that has come with the growth of solar energy.
  • The role of storage as it relates to geothermal energy.
  • How Tim sees areas of risk for Fervo.
  • What success looks like for Fervo.

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*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

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