How foreign turbine suppliers are gearing up for a US geothermal boom

Geothermal energy is getting a fresh push in the U.S., driven by new drilling technology, federal incentives, and rising power demand from AI data centers. Companies that build geothermal power plants are starting to use standardized equipment instead of custom-built systems for each site, which should make projects faster and cheaper to build. Fervo Energy, developing the Cape Station project in Utah, has struck a deal with Italian turbine maker Turboden for up to 1.75 gigawatts of equipment over three years.

Right now, almost none of the specialized turbines used in these plants are manufactured in the U.S. Turboden and another Italian company, Exergy, are opening U.S. offices and looking for domestic suppliers to build parts, though the core turbine components will likely keep being made overseas for now. Exergy's situation is complicated by its ownership by a Chinese company, which can trigger extra scrutiny under U.S. rules meant to limit ties to "foreign entities of concern" — those rules can affect whether a project qualifies for certain tax credits.

None of this changes anything about home energy upgrades directly. Geothermal here refers to large power plants that feed electricity into the grid, not the small heat-pump systems some homeowners install for heating and cooling. But if this industry grows as expected, it could mean more geothermal electricity on the grid over time, alongside continued shortages of some power equipment like transformers and circuit breakers that are affecting the wider energy industry.