Project Blanford

Executive Overview

Project Blanford is a greenfield enhanced geothermal system (EGS) development by Fervo Energy in Millard County, Utah, announced in February 2026 following the successful completion of an appraisal drilling campaign. The vertical appraisal well confirmed resource temperatures above 555°F (290°C) at approximately 11,200 feet — the hottest well drilled in Fervo's history, exceeding temperatures at Project Red (365°F) and Cape Station (400°F). The well was drilled in under 11 days using Fervo's proprietary AI-driven subsurface analytics. A diagnostic fracture injection test was performed successfully. An independent assessment confirmed multi-gigawatt resource potential at the site. Target reservoir formations are sedimentary (sandstones, claystones, carbonates). Site temperature is above the 95th percentile for deep geothermal gradient across the western United States. No COD, capacity, or offtake have been publicly disclosed; the project is at appraisal stage.

How It Works & Differentiation

Fervo's EGS approach adapts horizontal drilling and hydraulic stimulation techniques from the oil and gas sector to create engineered fracture networks in hot, low-permeability rock. Fibre-optic distributed sensing monitors subsurface flow and temperature in real time. At 555°F / 290°C, the Blanford resource approaches supercritical water conditions (approximately 374°C / 720°F), which dramatically increases the energy content per unit of produced fluid compared to conventional geothermal at 150–200°C. This thermodynamic advantage means fewer wells are required per megawatt of output, reducing land use and per-unit development cost.

Commercialization & Traction

Fervo's commercial portfolio at the time of the Blanford announcement includes Cape Station (500 MW, Beaver County Utah, under construction, COD 2026 for first phase) and the Project Red commercial deployment at the Switch data campus in Nevada (operational, generating revenue). The Blanford appraisal well result allows Fervo to add a third giga-scale site to its development pipeline alongside Cape Station, expanding the reserve base for future offtake agreements. The AI-driven exploration approach that identified Blanford is the same methodology Fervo uses across its development pipeline, and the sub-11-day drilling time demonstrates operational execution speed that supports capital efficiency.

Scalability & Strategic Context

The multi-gigawatt resource assessment at Blanford — if confirmed through production testing and commercial development — would give Fervo a total addressable capacity substantially larger than any current committed offtake. Cape Station's PPAs with Southern California Edison (320 MW), Clean Power Alliance (18 MW), East Bay Community Energy (40 MW), and others provide the revenue base and utility relationship infrastructure that Blanford would build on. The extremely high temperatures at Blanford may ultimately make it a candidate for supercritical geothermal development — a step-change in power density versus conventional EGS that no commercial developer has yet achieved at scale.