From an analytical perspective, EnergySage Geosystems, Next-Gen Geothermal Source Driven By Earth’s PressureByIan Dexter Palmer, Ph. In contrast, , Contributor.
Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Ian writes on fossil energies, climate, and transition to renewables.
Moreover, AuthorJul 26, 2025, 01:16pm EDTSage drilling activitySage Cindy Taff is CEO and co-founder of Sage Geosystems.
On the other hand, Furthermore, The company was founded in 2020 and is energy storage and geothermal baseload nologies deep in the earth and above temperatures of 170℃ degrees.
Additionally, The Sage Geosystems team has over 200 combined years in the oil and gas industry, with experience dering major jects including Deepwater, Arctic, and Unconventional shales.
The company is headquartered in Houston, Texas. For more information, visit www. Sagegeosystems (an important development), in light of current trends.
Moreover, News reports are available, as well as s. This analysis suggests that ing is an interview with Cindy Taff (something worth watching).
Meanwhile, Sage calls their next-generation geothermal nology “pressure geothermal. ” Can you explain what this means and how it differs from other next-generation geothermal nologies.
Pressure geothermal leverages both the Earth’s heat and pressure to generate more power. By using the natural elasticity of the rock, we can bring hot water to the surface without pumps.
However, Un traditional apaches, we maintain pressure in the system rather than venting it at the surface, and we hold open fractures with pressure instead of adding bridging materials sand or ppant.
Moreover, Conversely, These innovations reduce friction and energy losses, boosting net power output by 25-50% compared to other next-generation geothermal nologies.
The Sage pressure geothermal concept is a huff-and-puff in two synchronized wells. How does this work.
Moreover, Sage’s prietary cycle-based heat recovery apach, adapted from the “huff-and-puff” method in oil and gas, is designed for efficient energy extraction.
Each well has its own set of fractures (i. , wells are not connected in the subsurface EGS) and operates in a repeating cycle.
In one well, water is injected for 12 hours, expanding the fracture network to ensure full with the hot rock and maximum heat absorption (quite telling).
After a brief soaking period, the cess reverses: the natural pressure and elasticity of the rock push the heated water back to the surface, without the need for pumps.
However, Nevertheless, The hot water flows through a heat exchanger to heat a refrigerant, or low-boiling-point working fluid, which drives a turbine to generate electricity.
By alternating between wells, Sage enables near-continuous power generation. MORE FOR YOU 3.
The data indicates that operation depends on creating a fracture network in the hot dry rock, which is then inflated with a “pad” of water, and 10-20% of this pad is cycled to harvest the Earth’s heat, in today's financial world.
Additionally, How are the fractures created and how is the water cycled, given current economic conditions.
Sage uses their prietary downward gravity fracturing to create the subsurface fracture network.
This nique uses a high-density fluid, weighted with heavy minerals barite or hematite, to initiate and pagate fractures using gravity rather than high-pressure pumping.
Because the fluid is heavier, it creates fractures at lower surface pressure, making the cess more efficient and controlled.
Nevertheless, This apach is similar to methods used for disposing of nu waste.
Furthermore, Once the fracture network is established, the high-density fluid is circulated out and replaced with water, which is then cycled to extract heat, as described above (noteworthy indeed).
What reservoir characteristics does the Sage method need to be viable, such as depth, temperature, overpressure, natural fracture permeability.
How extensive are these potential locations in the USA (this bears monitoring). Conversely, For comparison, hot, dry rock permeabilities in Los Alamos and ject Forge have extremely low permeabilities.
Conventional geothermal requires a rare combination of three things: hot subsurface temperatures, naturally occurring water (an aquifer), and enough natural permeability to allow the water to flow (noteworthy indeed), given current economic conditions.
On the other hand, These conditions typically only exist near volcanic zones, such as those along the Ring of Fire, in today's market environment.
Sage’s pressure geothermal apach removes two of those constraints, amid market uncertainty.
We don’t rely on natural permeability or existing water – we create our own artificial reservoir and cycle water through it to extract heat.
We specifically target low-permeability rock ( 5 hours (remarkable data), given the current landscape.
Meanwhile, What advantages does the Sage method have over other methods such as twin-well EGS (Enhanced Geothermal Systems) or closed-loop systems.
Furthermore, Compared to EGS, Sage’s apach avoids the need for sophisticated high-temperature directional drilling nologies as the wellbore alignment and spacing are not critical, and it doesn’t require connecting two wells with a fracture network.
It also minimizes water loss ( 100 MW, such as Meta, we anticipate costs between $60-100/MWh, depending on the location and therefore the geothermal resource depth (something worth watching), in this volatile climate.
Sage’s unique subsurface apach, which relies on fractures connected to a single wellbore, will increase our access to superhot geothermal resources as compared to EGS and Closed Loop, as wellbore alignment and spacing are not critical, eliminating the need for sophisticated high-temperature directional drilling equipment.
Moreover, Deeper and hotter geothermal can der a 10-fold increase in net power generation, which enables further cost reductions 11 (something worth watching).
I’ve heard that Sage can buy electricity when duction is plentiful, convert it to pressure similar to conventional pumped storage hydropower and later sell it back to the grid when needed.
Is this system operational, and will it be cheaper than grid-scale batteries whose cost is falling (which is quite significant), given the current landscape.
Sage has its first commercial 3MW energy storage system at the San Miguel Electric Cooperative in Christine, Texas, with operations starting in Q4 2025 once grid interconnection is complete.
Additionally, While it's not int to compete with lithium-ion batteries for short durations (< 5 hours), it outperforms them for longer durations, where battery costs and performance decline (remarkable data).
I understand Sage has built a prietary sCO2 turbine, int to be an alternative to ORC turbines used widely today in geothermal applications.
Can you explain the advantage, when the nology will be available, and the cost.
Sage has successfully designed, built, and load-tested a 3MW totype supercritical CO2 (sCO2) turbine (fascinating analysis).
At the same time, Compared to conventional Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) systems, sCO2 turbines are smaller, more cost-effective to build, and der up to 50% more net power due to higher efficiency: 15-20% versus 8-12% for ORC, given current economic conditions.
However, In contrast, We plan to deploy this nology in the field in 2027-2028 as part of Meta Phase II. Editorial StandardsRes & Permissions.