推动电力行业参与者（如地热能公司 Fervo Energy）股价上涨的人工智能数据中心热潮，也可能将它们拖入深渊。
The AI data center boom that has lifted power sector players like geothermal company Fervo Energy could also threaten to sink them.
Fervo 于 5 月在纳斯达克上市，正陷入清洁技术和 AI 面临的逆风之中：它们难以应对接入电网的漫长等待、利率上升，以及科技公司能否满足其巨额资金需求的疑问。这些因素制约了这家备受瞩目的新一代地热能公司，该公司希望凭借全天候清洁电力吸引环保意识强的科技巨头的强烈兴趣。
Fervo, whose shares launched on the NASDAQ in May, is caught up in headwinds facing clean tech and AI as they struggle to navigate long waits to connect to the power grid, rising interest rates and questions about tech companies’ ability to meet their massive cash needs. That’s pinched Fervo, the high-profile next-generation geothermal company hoping its round-the-clock clean power will draw strong interest from environmentally minded tech giants.
“你现在看到的是市场更广泛的回撤，正在冲击整个 AI 基础设施和清洁技术板块，”Fervo Energy 首席执行官蒂姆·拉蒂默在《政治客》能源播客节目中表示。“我们也卷入了这波回撤。”这些挑战压低了 Fervo Energy 的股价。该股 5 月以每股 27 美元的价格上市，但周五收于 8.28 美元。
"What you're seeing right now is a broader pullback in the market that is impacting the entire AI infrastructure and cleantech sector," Fervo Energy CEO Tim Latimer told the POLITICO Energy podcast. "We're caught up in that pullback as well." Those challenges have crimped Fervo Energy’s stock price. It went public in May at $27 per share, but closed Friday at $8.28.
“我们非常有信心，我们持续的执行将兑现我们承诺的成果，并将继续扩大规模，”他说。“但总体而言，创新技术的融资环境非常艰难，尤其是在清洁能源领域，我们也未能幸免。”地热能利用地下数千英尺的热量驱动发电涡轮机，已存在多年，但新技术旨在将这一电源从小众转变为美国西部部分地区的主要电力贡献者。因其能提供零排放电力以支持高能耗产业，地热能获得了罕见的两党支持，赢得了拜登和特朗普两届政府通过联邦拨款提供的资金支持。
“We're very confident that our continued execution is going to deliver on the results that we promised and that we're going to continue to scale up,” he said. “But it's been a very challenging financing environment broadly for innovative technologies, especially in the clean energy space, and we haven't been immune to that.”Geothermal energy, which harnesses heat from thousands of feet underground to power electricity turbines, has been around for years, but new technology aims to turn the power source from a niche into a major power contributor in parts of the West. It has achieved rare bipartisan backing for its ability to provide zero-emitting power to support energy-intensive industries, winning financial backing from both the Biden and Trump administrations through federal grants.
根据资产管理公司Lazard的数据，虽然地热能正变得与其他新建能源项目具有竞争力，但像Fervo这样采用注入流体深入地下的增强型设计，通常成本更高。Latimer表示，这些成本曲线正在下降，帮助Fervo吸引了希望快速获得电力、而不愿等待接入大型电网的AI运营商等客户。“我们的客户不是在跟我们做慈善，”Latimer说。
While geothermal is becoming competitive with other new builds of other energy sources, according to asset management firm Lazard, the enhanced designs that inject fluids deep underground like Fervo are typically more expensive. Those cost curves are falling, helping Fervo attract customers like AI operators that want power quickly instead of waiting for space on the bulk electric grid, Latimer said. “Our customers are not doing charity with us,” Latimer said.
目前，地热能提供美国4吉瓦的发电量，大致相当于四座核反应堆的发电量，足以供应300万至400万户家庭用电。Latimer表示，得益于从石油和天然气压裂热潮中借鉴的钻探技术，使开采深层地下岩体发电变得更加容易，地热能有望实现增长。美国能源部估计，Fervo所生产的此类增强型地热能发电量到2050年可能飙升至90吉瓦。
Geothermal currently provides 4 gigawatts of U.S. electricity generation, about the same as four nuclear reactors, or enough to power 3 million to 4 million households. Latimer said geothermal is poised for growth, thanks in part to drilling techniques borrowed from the oil and gas fracking boom that have made it easier to tap deep underground rock masses for power. Energy Department estimates enhanced geothermal like what Fervo produces could soar to 90 gigawatts of electricity by 2050.
AI预计将发挥关键作用。科技行业并未放弃其气候目标，即使AI正日益使这些目标变得不切实际，因为企业转而使用天然气为全天候运营提供燃料。地热能的卖点在于，它能在不排放温室气体的情况下提供不间断电力。
AI figures to play a key role. The tech sector has not given up on its climate goals, even if AI is increasingly making those targets unrealistic as companies turn to natural gas to fuel non-stop operations. The pitch for geothermal is it can provide uninterrupted power without greenhouse gas emissions.
“我们的客户对可靠、零碳电力有着深层需求，并希望因此与我们签订合同，”他说。
“Our customers have a deep need for reliable, carbon-free electricity and want to sign contracts with us for that reason,” he said.
虽然Fervo已赢得南加州爱迪生公司和壳牌能源北美公司等公用事业公司的合同，但其最大的交易是与谷歌达成的，后者同意从9月在犹他州开始商业生产的Cape Station设施购买396兆瓦电力，并拥有扩大至1吉瓦的选择权。
While Fervo has won contracts from utilities like SoCal Edison and Shell Energy North America, its biggest deal is with Google, which agreed to buy 396-megawatts of power from the Cape Station facility that began commercial production in September in Utah, with an option to expand to 1 gigawatt.
Fervo 也因必要性而寻求科技客户，因为第三方输电运营商限制了该公司接入高压输电线路，而这些线路本可将其电力远距离输送。拉蒂默表示，Fervo 正在寻求所谓的“用户侧”协议，以避免接入电网的漫长等待——尽管科技公司正日益推动获得电网接入。
Fervo has also sought tech customers by necessity because third-party transmission operators have limited the company’s access to the high voltage wires that would send its power far and wide. Latimer said Fervo is pursuing so-called behind-the-meter agreements to avoid long waits to connect to the grid – though tech companies are increasingly pushing for grid access.
拉蒂默表示，通过两党参议院许可法案将对地热能产生“变革性”影响，因为这将解决建设新输电项目的障碍。
Latimer said passing the bipartisan Senate permitting bill would be “transformative” for geothermal by solving hurdles for building new transmission projects.
他说：“特别是在美国西部，建设新输电线路非常具有挑战性，互联时间表已大幅延长。”然而，Fervo 也招致了对其业务的质疑。
“Particularly in the U.S. West, it is very challenging to build out new transmission and interconnection timelines have been very extended,” he said. Yet Fervo has also attracted skepticism about its business.
一家名为 Morpheus Research 的做空机构正在做空 Fervo 股票，声称该公司内华达州的试点项目未能从地下汲取足够稳定的热量来发电，且其系统流失水的速度如果在犹他州项目中重演，将违反许可规定。
A short-seller named Morpheus Research is betting against Fervo shares, claiming the company’s Nevada pilot site failed to draw enough steady heat from the earth to produce power and that it lost water from its system at a rate that would violate a permit if repeated at its Utah project.
拉蒂默驳回了 Morpheus 的指控，称其具有选择性，且是在未进行适当事实核查的情况下发布的。他并未完全否认其内华达州的“红色项目”试点现场经历了所谓的“热衰退”，一年内温度下降了 24 华氏度，但他表示，此类发现只是其表现的一个不准确的“快照”。
Latimer dismissed Morpheus’ claims as selective and said they were issued without proper fact checking. He did not outright deny that its Project Red pilot site in Nevada experienced what is known as “thermal decline” at a rate of 24 degrees Fahrenheit in one year, but remarked such findings are an inaccurate “snapshot” of its performance.
Fervo 指出，“红色项目”回收了 70% 的水。拉蒂默表示，Fervo 实现 99% 水保留率的目标在其犹他州项目中是可以实现的，他称该项目符合州政府许可规定，不得减少含水层水量。
Fervo noted Project Red recaptured 70% percent of its water. Latimer said Fervo’s goal to retain 99% is achievable at its Utah project, which he said complies with a state permit forbidding it from diminishing aquifers.
他说：“我们已在之前的许多披露中解决了大部分担忧。我们有大量数据公开。” 此外，律师事务所 Hagens Berman 正在探讨潜在的股东诉讼，核心在于 Fervo 是否未能适当披露其可能面临输电限制，从而对其业务产生重大影响。
“We have addressed most of the concerns in many prior disclosures. We have enormous amount of data out there,” he said Separately, law firm Hagens Berman is exploring a potential shareholder lawsuit over whether Fervo failed to appropriately disclose that it could face transmission curtailments that would materially affect its business.
拉蒂默表示，在获取输电接入方面面临的这些挑战并非秘密，鉴于该国在努力增加新电力来源以满足不断激增的需求方面所面临的困难。
Latimer said those challenges with gaining transmission access are not a secret given the nation’s struggle to add new power sources to meet surging demand.
“这是一个众所周知的问题，我们和许多人长期以来一直披露这一点，”他说。
“It's a well-known problem, it's been disclosed by us and by many people for a long time,” he said.