地热能公司 Fervo Energy 周四上午宣布：其位于 Cape Station 的发电厂已于 9 月 30 日开始向电网供电，比原计划提前了一天。
Geothermal company Fervo Energy announced Thursday morning that it had started selling electricity from its Cape Station power plant to the grid on September 30, one day ahead of schedule.
凭借这一成就，Fervo 成为首家实现这一关键商业里程碑的地热能公司。该发电厂大约一周前已成功并入电网，目前仅投入运行的部分发电能力仅为整个项目总规模的三分之一（该项目最终将具备 100 兆瓦的发电能力）。
With it, Fervo becomes the first enhanced geothermal company to reach a key commercial milestone. The power plant synchronized with the grid about a week ago, bringing online the first third of what will soon become a 100-megawatt power plant.
Fervo 曾向 TechCrunch 表示，该发电厂的规模还有进一步扩大的潜力，理论上最多可产生 4 吉瓦的电力。
The entire site could be much larger, though, with the potential to generate as much as 4 gigawatts of electricity, Fervo previously told TechCrunch.
Fervo 的联合创始人兼首席执行官 Tim Latimer 在声明中表示：“全球尚无任何团队能够完成如此规模的项目，而我们不仅按时完成了它，还超额完成了目标。”
“No team has ever built a project like this anywhere in the world, and we did it ahead of schedule,” Fervo co-founder and CEO Tim Latimer said in a statement.
从项目启动到正式投入商业运营，Cape Station 的第一个发电单元耗时 23 个月才建成。随着 Fervo 不断优化其开发流程，他们计划将后续发电单元的建造周期缩短至 18 个月以内。
From groundbreaking to commercial operations, the first block at Cape Station took 23 months to complete. As Fervo refines its process, it is aiming to complete future blocks in as little as 18 months.
对于那些急需电力、一直在能源行业寻找新增发电能力的数据中心运营商来说，这样的建设速度无疑极具吸引力。地热能项目也可以分阶段进行开发——就像数据中心一样，可以根据需求的变化逐步增加发电容量。
That sort of speed to power should appeal to power-starved data center operators, who have been scouring every part of the energy sector for generating capacity. Geothermal can also be developed in phases, similar to how data centers are developed, allowing hyperscalers to bring racks online as demand ramps up.
谷歌（Google）、南加州爱迪生公司（Southern California Edison）等企业已承诺从 Fervo 的 Cape Station 项目中购买电力。
Google, Southern California Edison, and others have committed to buying power from Fervo’s Cape Station project.
Fervo 是众多致力于开发地热能发电技术的公司之一。与传统地热能技术不同，Fervo 及其竞争对手选择在更深的地下钻探：因为越深的岩层温度越高，从而为地热能的开发提供了更多可能性。
Fervo is one of several companies developing enhanced geothermal power plants. While traditional geothermal power taps heat sources close to the surface, Fervo and its peers are drilling deeper because deeper rock is hotter, opening more opportunities for development.
Fervo于今年5月通过一次规模扩大的首次公开募股（IPO）上市，筹集了19亿美元资金。该公司成立于2017年，将石油和天然气行业的钻探技术与工艺引入了新型地热资源的开发中。作为一家初创公司，该公司已从突破能源风险投资公司（Breakthrough Energy Ventures）、Congruent Ventures和摩羯座投资集团（Capricorn Investment Group）等投资者那里筹集了超过13亿美元的资金。
Fervo went public in May in an upsized IPO that raised $1.9 billion. It was founded in 2017, bringing drilling techniques and technologies from the oil and gas sector to the development of new geothermal resources. As a startup, the company raised more than $1.3 billion from investors including Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Congruent Ventures, and Capricorn Investment Group.