One of America’s most dangerous volcanoes will soon power homes

Washington Post

Oregon Volcano to Host World’s Hottest Geothermal Power Plant

On the slopes of Oregon’s Newberry Volcano, engineers are building what could become the hottest geothermal power plant on Earth.

The plant will harness the extreme heat of Newberry, “one of the largest and most hazardous active volcanoes in the United States,” according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Temperatures at the site have already reached 629 degrees Fahrenheit, making it one of the planet’s hottest geothermal locations. By next year, electricity from the project will start powering nearby homes and businesses.

Mazama Energy, the start-up behind the project, aims to push the heat even higher—beyond 750 degrees—and become the first company to produce electricity from what industry insiders call “superhot rock.”

Proponents say that could transform geothermal energy from a minor player into a major force in the global electricity market.

“Geothermal has been mostly inconsequential,” said Vinod Khosla, a venture capitalist and one of Mazama Energy’s largest backers. “To do geothermal at a scale that matters—tens or hundreds of gigawatts in the U.S., and many times that globally—you really need to solve these high temperatures.”

Currently, geothermal generates less than 1 percent of the world’s electricity. But reaching superhot temperatures, along with other technological improvements, could increase that share to 8 percent by 2050, according to the International Energy Agency. In theory, geothermal using superhot rock could produce 150 times more electricity than the world currently consumes.

Terra Rogers, program director for superhot rock geothermal at the Clean Air Task Force, said, “This is the most direct path to lowering the cost of geothermal and making it viable globally. The technological gaps are within reason—engineering iterations, not breakthroughs.”

A New Kind of Geothermal

The Newberry Volcano project combines two major innovations that could make geothermal energy cheaper and more widely accessible.

First, Mazama Energy is bringing its own water to the site through a method called “enhanced geothermal energy.”

Traditional geothermal relies on natural pockets of water and steam found in rare locations with hot rocks, limiting projects to countries like Japan, Iceland, Kenya, and parts of the U.S. West. Enhanced geothermal injects water into hot dry rock to create steam, a technique adapted from oil and gas fracking. Similar pilot projects have been tried in Nevada, Utah, and internationally in France, Germany, Switzerland, and Japan.

Injecting water into rock can cause small earthquakes, similar to those seen in fracking. The Newberry site recorded five tremors in the past six months, the largest a magnitude 2.5 quake on July 24. Experts say earthquakes can be managed with monitoring and careful engineering. Water pollution risks are low because geothermal systems recirculate water in sealed wells far below typical groundwater levels.

Newberry also taps hotter rock than any previous enhanced geothermal project. However, its 629-degree temperatures are still below the “superhot” threshold of 705 degrees, where water becomes supercritical—a state between liquid and gas, ideal for electricity generation.

“The water is Clark Kent when it goes down,” said Mazama CEO Sriram Vasantharajan. “It gets superheated, and when it comes up, it’s Superman.”

Superhot geothermal wells can produce five to ten times more energy than typical wells, reducing the need for expensive drilling. Economic modeling suggests that, over time, superhot geothermal could rival natural gas or solar on cost, without fossil fuel pollution or renewable variability.

Mazama plans to drill deeper wells next year, aiming for temperatures above 750 degrees, just three miles beneath the surface at the active volcano. Elsewhere, developers may need to dig as deep as 12 miles to reach superhot conditions.

Superhot Challenges

Drilling into 750-degree rock presents major challenges. Standard oil and gas drilling equipment can’t withstand these temperatures; electronic components fail almost immediately. Mazama engineers overcame this by cooling their rigs with a continuous stream of liquid carbon dioxide, allowing them to drill two miles into the volcano to reach 629-degree rock.

Previous experiments in Iceland, Hawaii, Japan, and Italy reached even hotter rock—sometimes exceeding 900 degrees—but were abandoned due to equipment failures or encounters with magma.

Even with Mazama’s current wells, experts warn that drilling into hotter rock and operating wells long-term will expose cement and steel casings to punishing temperature and pressure cycles.

“With something like this, there’s a huge amount of problems that can happen,” said Kolbrún Ragna Ragnarsdóttir of the Global Geothermal Alliance.

Despite the obstacles, the potential payoff is enormous. Mazama plans to generate 15 megawatts of electricity next year, eventually scaling up to 200 megawatts—enough to power a small city or large data center. The Newberry site could theoretically produce five gigawatts, roughly two-thirds of Oregon’s average electric output.

“Successful projects motivate other players to enter the market,” said Annick Adjei, senior research analyst for geothermal at Wood Mackenzie. “We could see a ripple effect, with more companies receiving support to launch their own pilots.”

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