Cyclotron Road, a DOE Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program at Berkeley Lab, empowers leading science entrepreneurs to advance their technology projects from idea to global impact. Among its successes is Fervo Energy, founded by 2018 cohort members Tim Latimer and Jack Norbeck. Fervo provides 24/7 energy by developing next-generation geothermal power, revolutionizing this type of power generation by making it cost effective and globally scalable. Listen to this podcast where we talk about how Cyclotron Road supports the next generation of science entrepreneurs.
Featuring:
Jack Norbeck, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Fervo Energy. Jack leads the company's geothermal exploration and reservoir engineering strategy. Prior to co-founding Fervo through the Cyclotron Road program, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the USGS Earthquake Science Center.
[00:00:00] Soomin Suh: Hi everyone. This is Soomin with the Strategic Communications team at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. I'm here today with Jack Norbeck, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Fervo Energy. Jack, thank you for taking the time to talk with us about Fervo's start and the Cyclotron Road program.
[00:00:16] Jack Norbeck: Very happy to be here.
[00:00:17] Soomin Suh: Fervo has made significant breakthroughs in enhanced geothermal systems. Can you explain what those are and how your technology works?
[00:00:25] Jack Norbeck: Yes. So Geothermal energy has been around for a long time. It's heat from the earth. It's a clean energy resource, a renewable energy resource, and importantly, it runs around the clock 24 7, so it's very reliable. Historically, geothermal's been confined to being developed in hotspots, so you can think of Northern California or Iceland, or parts of New Zealand.
These are your traditional geothermal regions. What we're working on at Fervo is enhanced geothermal systems technology and the goal of and benefit of enhanced geothermal or EGS is to broaden the scale and resource potential of geothermal. So we believe that with our technology, geothermal could contribute up to a hundred gigawatts of potential in the US alone and can scale more broadly across the world as well.
[00:01:26] Soomin Suh: Thank you for that explanation. Can you walk us through how Fervo got started and what specifically drew you to the Cyclotron Road program at Berkeley Lab?
[00:01:35] Jack Norbeck: Yeah, so we founded the company in 2017. Really around the idea that we could leverage new innovations from the oil and gas industry and apply those to geothermal in ways that hadn't been done before, to make our projects more cost effective and able to scale up more effectively.
So one of the benefits that we recognized after founding the company was that there had been decades of R and D and innovation that had gone on for enhanced geothermal systems, but that technology breakthrough from the oil and gas industry just hadn't been there until the last couple of years.
But, what was there was a tremendous amount of background research and knowledge, and a lot of that was housed in the national labs and in particular, the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab had a long history of doing geothermal research, and we wanted to be a part of that and take advantage of the expertise that existed at the Lab.
The Cyclotron Road program allowed us to do that.
[00:02:38] Soomin Suh: How did access to Berkeley Lab facilities and expertise specifically accelerate your development of enhanced geothermal technology?
[00:02:45] Jack Norbeck: Building upon the decades of research that had been done at Berkeley Lab, we knew we had to be a part of that. They had expertise in advanced computational modeling, high performance computing, and some of the most advanced geomechanical and fluid flow laboratory setups anywhere in the world.
And so one of the very first things that we did was actually through the Cyclotron Road program, we were awarded a certain amount of funding that had to be used at the Lab itself. And so we collaborated with one of the research groups and a postdoc at the Lab to do research on high temperature proppant behavior.
Proppant is a critical component of Fervo's enhanced geothermal systems. But, the knowledge base around proppant performance at high temperatures was limited because the oil and gas industry just had never encountered the type of temperatures that we deal with in our projects. And so we worked directly through the Cyclotron Road program and with some of the postdocs at the Berkeley Lab to do advanced testing and diagnostics during laboratory experiments that were really critical for improving our understanding of high temperature proppant performance.
[00:04:01] Soomin Suh: Great, thank you. In what ways did the program help you refine your business strategy?
[00:04:06] Jack Norbeck: One of the best parts about the Cyclotron Road program was the dedicated mentorship that the leadership across Cyclotron Road provided, as well as the exposure to an extremely highly qualified and high caliber network of venture investors and other founders.
And so the community, and the engagement that you get on a day-to-day basis, being part of that ecosystem is incredible. And for someone like me who is coming from a technical background and academic background and had virtually zero exposure to or experience in entrepreneurship, it was just incredibly valuable experience to go through the program.
[00:04:51] Soomin Suh: How did the program help you connect with potential partners or investors and what benefits have you seen from those connections?
[00:04:58] Jack Norbeck: So Fervo started in the Cyclotron Road program in 2018 and we were actually fortunate enough to raise our Series A mid 2019. So we were still in the middle of our two year cohort of the Cyclotron Road program. And if you look across the investor group that made up our Series A you can see investors such as Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Congruent Ventures, and others.
And virtually all of those we had met if not for the first time, you know, multiple repeat meetings through the Cyclotron Road program. So one of the big advantages of the Cyclotron Road program is just the instant credibility that it gives you with the investor community. And I think that's just something that has been hard fought over the years of the program and it's just one of the biggest benefits of going through Cyclotron Road.
[00:05:52] Soomin Suh: Looking back, what was the most valuable aspect of being embedded at Berkeley Lab through Cyclotron Road?
[00:05:58] Jack Norbeck: Starting at Cyclotron Road, right at the point when we had just founded the company was just a critical step in moving Fervo forward. I think one of the biggest benefits of working through the Cyclotron Road program is that it gave you two years to dedicate your life to the mission of what you were trying to accomplish.
You had two years of being embedded in one of the world's leading research institutions with incredibly talented group of people and set of resources that gave you differentiated access to resources that any startup should have. And so being able to take those two years and devote that time to the company with the incredible resources behind you was just something that accelerated our development of our technology in a way that wouldn't have been possible elsewhere.
[00:06:51] Soomin Suh: For scientists considering entrepreneurship through programs like Cyclotron Road, what should they know before taking that leap?
[00:06:57] Jack Norbeck: The world has some really challenging problems that need to be solved and they need smart people working on it. And so if you have an idea that you're passionate about, my recommendation is just take the leap of faith and go out and make it happen, and look for resources like Cyclotron Road that can help support you in that journey and just go and do it.
[00:07:24] Soomin Suh: Jack, thank you so much for taking the time to share this with us. To learn more about Fervo Energy, visit fervoenergy.com. And to learn more about Berkeley Lab Cyclotron Road program, visit cyclotronroad.lbl.gov.
This is Soomin with the Strategic Communications team at Berkeley Lab.
