The outgoing US government in the coming days intends to make it easier to obtain permits to work with geothermal energy. The new initiative will be implemented as part of a more general program to support AI data centers, Bloomberg reports.
The order will be one of the last signed by current US President Joe Biden before he leaves office. The document is expected to be published next week. The new measures, among other things, provide for simplifying the process of building data centers on federal lands, as well as speeding up the issuance of permits for the implementation of geothermal and nuclear projects.
The US Department of the Interior will identify priority areas for geothermal energy development, and the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy will identify federal sites where large data centers can be built. Facilities located on federal lands must meet specific cybersecurity standards and regulations and will be subject to restrictions on foreign funding. In addition, businesses participating in the projects will have to allocate part of their computing resources to national research in the field of AI.
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Lately, the outgoing US administration has been literally pouring out all sorts of orders. It is possible that after the arrival of the new President Donald Trump, some of them may be canceled. However, this is unlikely to apply to the data center sector. The Trump administration has made it clear that the development of data centers will remain a priority – this is a matter of ensuring national security. Future authorities promise to provide AI data centers with all available types of energy.
Some hyperscalers have already signed agreements with geothermal power plants to supply energy to their data centers. In August 2024, Meta✴ announced a 150 MW deal with startup Sage Geosystems. The first phase of the project should be completed with the commissioning of facilities in 2027. Previously, Google agreed to partner with Fervo Energy and NV Energy to purchase more than 100 MW of geothermal energy in Nevada, and Microsoft signed geothermal-related power purchase agreements (PPAs) in New Zealand with Contact Energy and is also developing a geothermal project in Kenya.