Tuesday, 24 June, 2025 / Edition 64

With the passing of the June solstice, we are officially into summer: For many of us, it’s hot, and vacation is near. Along those lines, this week’s edition will talk about a new electric plane flying from East Hampton (if that’s not prime vacay territory, I’m not sure what is) and the latest well Fervo has drilled (it is hot, hot, hot).

P.S. For those of you interested in the winner of AAPG’s 2025 Sustainable Development in Energy competition, which we teased last week, the big reveal is here.

Sarah Compton

Editor, Enspired

New EV Planes Quietly Glide Over East Hampton

Beta Technologies/Youtube.com

Earlier this month, the first fully electric commercial flight carried five passengers from East Hampton to JFK International Airport in New York.

Background: East Hampton Tower Airport lost FAA funding in 2022, and the town promptly took control with plans to transform it to a private-use airport, limiting hours of operation and requiring all landing planes to have advanced authorization.

The state’s Supreme Court issued a restraining order that has since ground those efforts to a halt, and litigation costs, now in the millions, continue to pile up, with no resolution on the horizon.

The problem: People like to travel, but no one wants to live by an airport. It’s noisy, and the smell of jet fuel is not something many want wafting through the air while they enjoy their morning mimosas in the Hamptons.

Enter, Beta Technologies: More than six years ago, the founder and CEO of Beta Technologies, Kyle Clark, began developing the Beta Alia, an aircraft that could fly more quietly and efficiently.

He expects the FAA to certify the Beta Alia in about 18 months.

Lots of runway: The new electric planes seem to check all the boxes that some EVs traditionally haven’t: comparable charge times, equal or lower costs, similar travel times, and the added bonus of a quiet flight experience—no noise-cancelling headphones needed.

Tech specs: The Alia has models that can take off vertically or conventionally (VTOL and CTOL). The specs for these aircraft include:

• A wingspan of 50 feet and a cargo capacity of 200 cubic feet

• Five passenger seats and a range of 336 nautical miles (demonstrated only by the CTOL)

Charging:

• The new planes can charge in less than an hour.

• The batteries are more focused on safety specs such as preventing thermal runaway and reducing the likelihood of failures.

• The charging stations use high-power DC charging tech, operating at around 320 kilowatts, while car chargers run at 50–250 kilowatts. Think of filling your swimming pool with a fire hose vs your garden hose.

Power and propulsion:

• A H500A electric motor powers these planes, with the VTOL having four additional V600A electric lift motors.

• A five-blade fixed pitch propeller at the back of the plane helps increase range and efficiency, with the VTOL having four additional two-blade lift propellers.

Together, these motors drive the range for the craft with 98 percent efficiency, while legacy engines are lagging at 30 percent.

Cost analysis: I’d expect all this to be expensive, but charging costs for a flight are around $8. The pilot and plane still need to be paid, and the flight time was comparable to a conventional flight.

What’s next: Beta is in talks with Bristow Group, operating about 50 miles southwest of New Orleans in Houma, LA, which specializes in personnel transport and search and rescue offshore.

To learn more about the first passenger flight from East Hampton, go here or watch the YouTube video here. 

Sponsored

Bringing the Heat: Indonesia’s Sorik Marapi Geothermal Field

Tapping into geothermal resources poses significant drilling challenges in one of the most extreme environments on the planet.

Fervo Takes Innovation Notes From Oil and Gas

Photo source: Fervo Energy

As geothermal continues to mature, it’s moving out from under the shadow of oil and gas into the forefront of drilling technology.

Driving the news: Fervo Energy recently drilled more than 15,750 feet (about 4.6 kilometers) under the surface where rock temperatures can reach more than 500 degrees.

The circle of…innovation? The company is in a cycle of innovation with vendors, testing how drill bits, casings, and electronics respond to geothermal’s high temperatures.

What they are saying: “Drilling is drilling,” said Sarah Jewett, Fervo’s vice president of strategy, but she added, “There's no reason why geothermal energy wells should be using older, more outdated rigs.”

Yes, but:

• Given petroleum drilling’s relatively shallow depths and different geological conditions than those of geothermal drilling, it’s not hard to argue that while drilling is drilling, environment matters.

• While building new materials to drill in new environments is exciting, another solution is to find where favorable rocks for geothermal production exist near the surface, such as in the western United States.

Location, location, location: “Really, hot rock is everywhere,” Jewett said. “It's just a question of how deep that rock exists and how economic it is to actually get to [that] depth.”

Fervo’s Cape Station development, located in southwestern Utah, will include three power plants in the first phase of development, with the first one scheduled to come online next summer and deliver 100 megawatts of geothermal power.

Growing like a weed: Over the next three years, Cape Station is expected to bring on an additional 400 megawatts of capacity, with purchasers including Shell Energy and Southern California Edison.

A(nother) nod to oil and gas: Fervo is also conducting reserve estimates to understand the resources with which its team has to work, which is something geothermal hasn’t traditionally done.

By the numbers: The company has teamed up with DeGolyer & MacNaughton to conduct a reserves estimate on the Cape Station project. Current numbers suggest reserves are at around five gigawatts of power, enough to run 3.75 million homes.

• This is in line with DOE estimates, which suggest enhanced geothermal system (EGS) has the potential to power more than 65 million American homes and businesses.

What to watch: We’re all too familiar with rosy reserve estimates, though, and much like how oil and gas waits for some production to back up the hype, it’ll be interesting to see how the outputs from geothermal match estimates

To read more about Fervo’s latest update, go here.

👍 If you enjoyed this edition of Enspired, consider supporting AAPG's brand of newsletters by forwarding to a friend or colleague and signing up for our other newsletters here.

➡️ Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up for Enspired here.

✉️ To get in touch with Sarah or suggest a topic for Enspired, send an email to editorial@aapg.org.