Sage Geosystems is an energy developer focusing on two main areas:

• Energy storage
• Geothermal baseload

Energy Storage

Sage Geosystems has two types of long-duration energy storage (LDES) technologies: (1) Mechanical storage (called EarthStore™) which is subsurface pumped hydro storage and (2) Geothermal storage (called Battery+™) which harvests both the heat and pressure of the water stored in the subsurface. Both technologies use built-to-purpose wells that can be drilled with off-the-shelf oil and gas equipment. These wells are then used to store and produce energy.

EarthStore™

EarthStore™ facilities have the broadest geographical potential because the only requirement is a low permeability formation with little or no fluid leak-off. Sage would then drill a well into the formation and use their patented downward-oriented frac technology to create a subsurface storage reservoir. During the energy storage cycle, water is pumped into the fracture(s) and stored under pressure. Then, when harvesting the stored energy, the surface valves are opened allowing the pressurized water to return to surface under great force and run through a Pelton turbine to generate electricity. The roundtrip efficiency (RTE) of this energy storage system is ~ 70-75%. Sage completed an EarthStore™ commercial pilot in April 2023 demonstrating both long duration (18+ hours) and load following energy storage. They generated electricity during this pilot with Pelton turbines to run equipment on location. Their first commercial EarthStore™ facility will be built in 2024 and commissioned in Q4 2024.

Battery+™

Battery+™ facilities are very similar to EarthStore™ facilities. The main difference is the wells are drilled deeper and in formations with a temperature of at least 150°C. Again, a subsurface storage reservoir is created with Sage’s patented frac technology (HeatRoot™), but this time in rock hot enough to geothermally enhance (heat) the stored water. Using Sage’s patented HeatCycle™ technology, during the injection cycle, water is pumped into the HeatRoot™ fractures which in turn heats the water via heat transfer across the large surface area created by the fracture network. During production, the surface valves are opened and the water is allowed to return to surface, coming out geothermally “charged”, or hot. The roundtrip efficiency (RTE) with this geothermal enhancement is ~ 200%, reflecting both the storage RTE but also the energy generation from the heat harvested from the earth.

Solar+™ / Wind+™

Pairing solar with Sage’s EarthStore™ technology turns solar from an intermittent energy source to 24/7 baseload. Pairing wind with Sage's EarthStore™ technology enables a shifting of the wind power generation from night, when electricity demand is low, to day when electricity demand is high. Sage has line-of-sight to displace gas peaker plants at scale when gas is $2/mcf, and once gas goes over $4/mcf Sage’s dispatchable energy storage technologies present a huge economical advantage (and without the escalation clauses that come with natural gas). In addition, Solar+™ provides a solution for energy poverty in developing countries and eliminates challenges of rolling blackouts.

Geothermal Baseload

Sage is targeting low- to mid-enthalpy formations with temperatures between 150 to 250°C at depths of 3 to 7 km around the world. Sage has demonstrated in the field the ability to double the electricity from a barrel of hot water, to make geothermal energy commercialization viable. In doing so, Sage is the first company to demonstrate the ability to deliver cost-effective and commercially-viable new generation geothermal (i.e., in hot dry rock) with their proprietary Geopressured Geothermal System (GGS) design to enable clean, baseload energy.

Sage has developed and proven in the field the following technologies for geothermal:

• Geopressured Geothermal Systems (GGS) - Sage is the only company that does not vent the pressure energy of their geothermal system to atmosphere, resulting in a 25-65% higher net output.
• HeatRoot™ - Sage's patented and field-proven (TRL7) technology to create a downward-oriented fracture network that serves as an artificial reservoir in hot dry rock. Heat is harvested from the earth by pumping water from surface into the artificial reservoir and allowing it to flow back to surface carrying the heat. In addition, the downward-oriented fracture network acts as a chimney for heat from deeper, hotter formations.
• HeatCycle™ - Sage's proprietary field-proven method to use pump-in/flowback cycles in the fracture network to pump water downhole and return it to surface at a high temperature and pressure, making geothermal baseload in hot dry rock practical.
• sCO2 Technologies - Sage's proprietary supercritical CO2 (sCO2) turbine. By using sCO2 as a refrigerant, the turbine is smaller in size, which decreases power plant costs and increases the efficiency of converting heat to electricity (i.e., more electricity for the same amount of heat compared to Organic Rankine Cycle or ORC turbines used in geothermal now). Sage has also patented sCO2-refrigerant mixtures to maximize net power output by shifting the cooling curve and minimizing parasitic loads from cooling. Sage's full scale 3 MW prototype is being tested on the Department of Energy's sCO2 flow loop at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in San Antonio, Texas, USA in Q1 2024. Once deployed, the turbines are expected to generate from 3 to 10 MWs of power and be deployed on a modular, per well basis. Once the tests at SwRI finish, this sCO2 technology will have reached a TRL7.

GeoTwin™ - Sage has also developed an in-house proprietary system-level modeling software that integrates subsurface and surface modeling capabilities allowing to estimate power output from their energy storage and/or geothermal system. This tool is unique to the industry and is used by Sage for the projects they develop.It is not currently being licensed, but there may be plans in the future to do so.

LATEST DEALS

August. 2024

• Meta Platforms and Sage Geosystems announced a partnership to expand geothermal power usage in the U.S., particularly east of the Rocky Mountains.

• Meta will buy up to 150 MW of geothermal power from Sage to support its U.S. data centers.

• The first phase of the project is expected to be online by 2027.

Sage Geosystems is pre-revenue and is focused on establishing a strong foothold in the market through their mechanical energy storage solutions (EarthStore™). This solution is intended to offer immediate and scalable energy storage options to meet the growing demand. This approach enables rapid revenue generation and building a solid customer base while gaining valuable industry insights and expertise. In addition, it proves 80% of the technology needed for their geothermal baseload design.

The company will work geothermal energy storage and geothermal baseload power generation progressively and in parallel for customers such as big tech firms and the U.S. military that have a geothermal need. This strategic progression ensures a sustainable business trajectory and positions Sage Geosystems as a leading provider of innovative geothermal solutions in the renewable energy landscape.

Sage completed a commercial pilot of their subsurface pumped hydro energy storage technology in April 2023, demonstrating both long duration (18+ hours) and load following energy storage. They generated electricity during this pilot with Pelton turbines to run equipment on location. Sage will be commissioning their first 3MW energy storage commercial facility in Q4 2024.

In addition, Sage is the first company to demonstrate the ability to deliver cost-effective and commercially-viable new generation geothermal with their Geopressured Geothermal Systems (GGS) design. GGS solves the technology issues that have hindered Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) for 50+ years.

Energy storage - Sage’s subsurface pumped hydro energy storage technology can be deployed now with off-the-shelf equipment and is cheaper than lithium-ion batteries for storage durations of 4 hours or more. It is also cheaper than pumped storage hydropower, which currently represents 90%+ of the storage capacity around the world, and is not geographically limited to mountainous regions.

Geothermal - Sage is the first company to demonstrate in the field the ability to deliver cost-effective and commercially-viable new generation geothermal in hot dry rock with their proprietary Geopressured Geothermal System (GGS) design.