Eavor weighs next phase at Bavarian geothermal plant after rocky commercial start

Eavor weighs next phase at Bavarian geothermal plant after rocky commercial start The closed-loop project near Munich shows firm zero-carbon baseload is buildable, but single-digit megawatts leave German gas and power economics untouched for now. Eavor Technologies is working out its next move at its flagship geothermal plant in Geretsried, south of Munich, after a rocky start to commercial operation, Canary Media reported on Thursday (2026-06-18). The closed-loop system began sending electricity to Germany's grid late in 2025, a milestone the startup had drilled toward for years.⁴ The appeal is firm, weather-independent power. Germany leans heavily on intermittent wind and solar backed by gas, and a geothermal source runs around the clock without fuel or emissions, which is the gap the country's grid struggles to fill.⁴ The scale, for now, is small. Eavor began drilling in Geretsried in July 2023 after winning a 91.6 million euro grant from the European Union's Innovation Fund, according to Canary Media. At full build-out the plant is designed to deliver 8.2 megawatts of electricity to the grid and 64 megawatts of district heating to nearby towns.⁴ Those figures frame both the promise and the limit. Eight megawatts barely registers against Germany's demand, so the plant works as a proof of concept first and a supply event second. What Eavor is testing is whether a closed-loop design, circulating fluid through sealed underground pipes instead of tapping natural reservoirs, can be drilled and run economically.⁴ The bigger prize sits deeper. The Economist has described a coming generation of superhot geothermal that drills 8 to 20 kilometres down to rock approaching 400°C, where water turns supercritical and carries far more energy per well. Modelling by the Clean Air Task Force suggests 13% of North America's land has superhot potential below 12.5 kilometres, and tapping just 1% could provide 7.5 terawatts of capacity.¹ Drilling cost decides whether any of this scales. Fervo Energy, a US rival, has demonstrated a 70% year-on-year cut in drilling times, which feeds directly into lower well costs. Eavor's Geretsried economics turn on the same lever, and on whether the company can repeat the build cheaply enough to justify a second site.¹ Finance and regulation are the other constraints. Canary Media reported in April (2026-04-01) that next-generation geothermal needs more than a technology breakthrough, with banks and insurers wanting clearer protocols before they fund projects and the industry still working out standards for limiting groundwater contamination and avoiding accidents. In the United States, bipartisan legislation has begun to ease the permitting path.² Germany's hunger for firm supply is visible elsewhere. Canada reached a deal to sell LNG from the Ksi Lisims project to Germany, CBC reported on May 28th (2026-05-28), a reminder of how much of the country's baseload still rests on imported gas, the very generation geothermal would eventually displace.³ For European energy markets the read is patient, not immediate. Firm zero-carbon baseload, if it ever arrives at gigawatt scale, would chip at gas-fired generation and the carbon demand that rides with it. ICE Endex TTF front-month traded around €41.99 on Friday (2026-06-19), and Germany's reliance on gas for marginal generation keeps that fuel central to power pricing. A handful of geothermal megawatts changes none of that yet.⁴ Execution is the test now. Whether Eavor reaches its 8.2-megawatt design target at Geretsried, and whether it can finance and replicate the closed-loop model elsewhere, will decide if this is a one-off demonstration or a repeatable template. The technology has cleared the hardest physical hurdle, producing power at all. The commercial one comes next.^4,2