Digging Deep: The Race to Harness Earth’s Hidden Heat

New tech and federal backing push geothermal from niche to next-gen clean energy

7 Nov 2025

The race to harness the Earth’s inner heat is gaining real traction. Once a fringe idea, geothermal energy is stepping into the spotlight as a powerful player in America’s clean energy transition. A mix of federal research, private innovation, and joint investment is giving this old concept a high-tech reboot.

Leading the charge is the Department of Energy’s new SUPERHOT program. Launched earlier this year, it’s funding breakthroughs in drilling and high-temperature extraction that target rock layers hotter than 375 °C. If successful, these methods could unlock immense stores of carbon-free energy buried deep below the surface.

Private companies are already pushing these ideas toward reality. Fervo Energy is borrowing horizontal drilling techniques from oil and gas fields to reach deeper, hotter zones in Nevada and Utah. Meanwhile, Baker Hughes is crafting materials and sensors tough enough to survive the brutal pressures miles underground. Their combined work could make geothermal more efficient and less expensive, a key step in drawing major investment.

“This is a convergence of innovation and necessity,” said an analyst at Wood Mackenzie. “Geothermal’s ability to provide clean, continuous electricity makes it essential for a reliable future grid.”

If the momentum holds, geothermal could supply a sizable portion of U.S. electricity. That would help balance wind and solar’s variability with steady, around-the-clock power drawn straight from the Earth.

Yet hurdles remain. Deep drilling is costly, and managing extreme underground heat and pressure remains a complex engineering task. Large-scale geothermal plants are still rare, with much of their potential awaiting real-world validation. Even so, optimism is rising as public and private efforts align faster than many expected.

What was once dismissed as a niche resource is now being reimagined as a cornerstone of the clean energy era. Each new well and superheated experiment brings America closer to tapping the vast, renewable power waiting beneath our feet.