Canadian start-up Eavor Technologies is gearing up to bring its flagship project online near Geretsried, Germany, a closed-loop geothermal installation that could mark a turning point for geothermal energy. Unlike traditional geothermal systems that rely on naturally flowing hot water reservoirs or fracking to stimulate rock, Eavor drills deep into hot rock (~2.8 miles) before creating a network of horizontal lateral wells (~1.8 miles each). Water circulates through this loop, warms up from contact with hot rock, and is brought to the surface to generate electricity and heat, reports Canary Media.
Significant cost reductions have been achieved: the drilling time for the final four lateral wells was halved compared with the earlier ones, thanks to innovations such as insulated drill pipe and tougher drill bits. These tech gains boost the heat output per loop by roughly 35%. Once fully operational, the plant will deliver about 8.2 MW of electricity and 64 MW of district heat. It is designed to operate flexibly, producing more heat in winter and more power in summer.
This project carries three key implications: (1) closed-loop geothermal can decouple geothermal deployment from special geology; (2) drilling and completion technology are trending strongly downward in cost; (3) pairing baseload geothermal with wind and solar strengthens renewables’ reliability. The article does not shy away from challenges: closed-loop systems may have lower heat transfer per unit compared with traditional systems, and long-term economic performance remains under review.
Eavor’s German project is more than a pilot; it’s a potential template for scalable deep-rock geothermal that could expand clean heat and power deployment well beyond legacy sites.