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XGS Energy may become the second next-generation geothermal power developer to go public this year. It would follow closely behind Fervo, which listed on the Nasdaq in May.
According to reporting by Axios, XGS has hired Morgan Stanley to evaluate whether it should capitalize on the sector’s momentum, as exemplified by Fervo’s $1.9-billion IPO — momentum fueled in part by data center demand for clean, firm power.
The news comes two months after XGS hired a former Calpine executive, Richard Chong, as its new chief financial officer. Chong’s expertise, the company said at the time, would help XGS execute its multi-gigawatt commercial pipeline, which includes a 115-megawatt project with community choice aggregators in California, and a 150-MW deal with Meta in New Mexico, which the company signed last summer.
The XGS approach to geothermal involves boring deep, vertical wells into the ground, and inserting steel pipes filled with water. XGS then backfills the area around the pipe with a proprietary liquid slurry made of conductive minerals to transfer heat from the rock, through the pipe, and into the water pumped into the tube. Late last year the company completed several months of testing at a site in California, running the system for roughly 3,000 hours to demonstrate stable performance at commercial depths and temperatures.
