Sage Geosystems Brings Its First Next-Generation Geothermal Plant Online in Texas

Sage Geosystems has been generating electricity since April 2026 at its first next-generation geothermal plant, a 3 MW system near San Antonio, Texas. As Canary Media reported on August 19, the facility is the third of its kind to connect to the United States grid.

The plant is located in Christine, Texas, adjacent to San Miguel Electric Cooperative's 391 MW lignite station, which supplies 47 counties across South Texas and anchors the southern load zone of ERCOT, the operator of Texas's electricity market. According to POWER Magazine, the cooperative is driving the transition of that unit toward cleaner resources and secured more than $1.4 billion in December from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's New ERA program to install 400 MW of solar and 200 MW of batteries by 2027. Sage's system, which the company calls geopressured, injects pressurized water into fractured rock and releases it to drive a turbine, a mechanism distinct from conventional geothermal operations such as those at Mexico's Cerro Prieto, Los Azufres, and Los Humeros fields.

Sage lost less than 10% of the water that circulated through the system and estimates a round-trip efficiency of between 70% and 75%, metrics that CEO Cindy Taff linked to the potential for scaling the technology at competitive cost. The company plans to drill its first well this year at an Ormat Technologies conventional plant in Nevada, where it expects to generate electricity starting in 2027. That project is the precursor to an agreement with Meta to develop 150 MW east of the Rocky Mountains. In U.S. history, only Ormat (1.7 MW in 2013) and Fervo Energy (3.5 MW alongside Google) had previously connected enhanced systems. Fervo is now building a 500 MW plant in Utah.

The next milestone to watch is Sage's first well drilling in Nevada before the end of 2026, and the partial startup of Fervo's Utah plant in October. Both projects will determine whether enhanced geothermal achieves commercial scale along a power corridor where data center demand is straining the grid.

This report was produced with artificial intelligence assistance from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.