Zanskar

In June 2024, a small company called Zanskar purchased a geothermal power plant in New Mexico that was failing fast. The water coming from the underground reservoir was getting colder by the day, making the plant uneconomical to run. Now, two years later, that plant is running at full capacity again, thanks to a new well. With the help of advanced modeling and modern drilling technology, the company was able to identify a better potential well site, drill down thousands of feet, and revive the entire operation.

One year in at our Lightning Dock facility in New Mexico, and it remains the most productive pumped geothermal well in the United States. When Zanskar acquired Lightning Dock, we recognized the opportunity to build on the existing facility's foundation and unlock the resource's full potential. Our subsurface imaging and reservoir modeling indicated that the geothermal system had additional untapped potential, giving us confidence that there was still significant opportunity to expand and optimize the resource. One year later, Lightning Dock continues to deliver just like it did on day one, generating over 140% more power than its original wells were producing. And Lightning Dock is just the start. There are countless underdeveloped and unknown geothermal systems across the American West. If they have even a fraction of Lightning Dock's promise, there's a huge, untapped source of baseload energy just waiting to be discovered. In a new blog post, Zanskar cofounder and CTO Joel Edwards shares a full year of data from Lightning Dock and what it signals for the future of American geothermal energy. Read the full post here: https://lnkd.in/d_vzZ4sQ

Geothermal's hottest, largest, and highest-quality resources are hidden right beneath our feet. But because less than 10% of the western U.S. has even been sampled for subsurface temperature, most of them have never been found, let alone developed. Until now. Combining expansive field surveys, computational geoscience, and artificial intelligence, Zanskar is finding and developing a portfolio of geothermal resources others never found. In a recent byline for POWER magazine, Zanskar VP of Finance Diego D'Sola highlights why this hidden resource is one of the most compelling opportunities in energy right now, and the broad implications for the entire geothermal industry. Read it now: https://lnkd.in/gbiRcfyW

Today our CEO Carl Hoiland joined Fervo Energy CEO Tim Latimer and editor of American Affairs Julius Krein for a panel titled "From Wells to Watts: Advanced Geothermal at Scale," moderated by University of Utah President Taylor Randall, at the Operation Gigawatt Summit. The summit, hosted by Governor Cox and the Abundance Institute, brought together leading voices in the next era of American energy to accelerate energy production as demand for clean, reliable, baseload power skyrockets. The opportunity for geothermal right now is enormous—orders of magnitude larger than the industry could've predicted only a decade ago. We're proud to share our discovery and development story, proving that conventional geothermal can meet this moment of rising demand.

From the the American West to the halls of Congress, geothermal is front and center. Yesterday, our co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Joel Edwards testified before the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology Energy Subcommittee on geothermal’s promising place in securing baseload, clean, firm power. Harnessing artificial intelligence and cutting-edge geoscience, we’re prepared to meet the moment as demand for around-the-clock energy skyrockets. Thank you to Chairman Weber, Ranking Member Ross, and the rest of the committee for the opportunity to tell our story.

Geothermal just got one of its biggest financing breakthroughs for early-stage development ⚡️ Zanskar has closed $40M in a novel Development Capital Facility, structured to scale to $100M. One of the first facilities of its kind, this deal represents a landmark financing moment for geothermal at large. Here’s why it matters: the earliest (and riskiest) stages of geothermal development — drilling, permitting, and field development — have always been the hardest to finance, relying almost exclusively on expensive equity. That bottleneck has suppressed the industry’s growth for decades: until now. This facility introduces non-recourse, scalable debt into the pre-construction phase, bridging the gap to traditional project financing and creating a replicable financing model for the entire sector. As CEO Carl Hoiland put it, Zanskar is “pioneering the financial infrastructure the entire industry needs to scale.” Co-led by Just Climate and Spring Lane Capital, with participation from Tierra Adentro Growth Capital, this facility will accelerate the deployment of clean, baseload geothermal power across the U.S. Read the full release here: https://lnkd.in/gEY5RbwP #Geothermal #GeothermalEnergy #EnergyInnovation #ClimateFinance #ClimateTech #BaseloadPower

We’re bringing AI-enabled discovery to the leading state for geothermal energy: California 🌅 Zanskar has signed a Geothermal Exploration, Offtake and Development Engagement (GEODE) Agreement with California Community Power (CC Power) to unlock new geothermal resources in California, a state rich with underground energy potential. The GEODE agreement extends Zanskar’s leading, multi-gigawatt geothermal pipeline into California at a time when the state faces mounting pressure to meet grid demands and accelerate the transition to 100% clean energy. Big thanks to CC Power for their vision and leadership in driving strategic geothermal growth that advances California’s energy goals and strengthens power reliability for local communities. Check out the full release: https://lnkd.in/g6pjyuYc #GeothermalEnergy #CleanEnergy #ClimateTech #Energy #AI #FutureofEnergy

As a proud alumnus of Activate, our co-founder Joel Edwards participated in Activate's FOUNDERS Day last week in Washington, D.C. Hosted by the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, the event brought together innovators and policymakers to discuss the future of energy. In addition to speaking about the support Activate provided to help propel Zanskar from the lab to commercialization, Joel also discussed how Zanskar is rapidly developing geothermal power plants to deliver clean, reliable baseload power across the U.S. Thank you to Activate for putting on the event and to the House Committee for hosting! #geothermal #baseloadpower #USA #USEnergy

Big thank you to our friends at All Aboard Fund, whose inaugural investment was part of Zanskar’s recent Series C fundraise 🙌. All Aboard is a "community of investors and entrepreneurs tackling climate tech’s toughest challenge: the scale-up stage." The support from Spring Lane Capital and the Series C syndicate will be used to swiftly advance Zanskar’s gigawatt-scale pipeline through a historic geothermal exploration and development campaign, bringing clean, firm baseload power to the American West 🇺🇲 Read more about All Aboard’s growth milestones in Michael Bowen’s article for New Private Markets: https://lnkd.in/gJN7zq7N and Roodgally Senatus article for ImpactAlpha: https://lnkd.in/g9hhXMDw #Geothermal #Energy #EnergyDemand #BasloadPower #USEnergy

🧨 Zanskar is proud to announce today our $115M Series C financing round! 🧨 The largest venture investment to date into AI-enabled discovery of geothermal resources, Spring Lane Capital led the round that also included Obvious Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, Munich Re Ventures, Susquehanna Sustainable Investments (SSI), Clearvision Ventures, Orion Resource Partners, Safar Partners, Imperative Ventures, StepStone Group, University Growth Fund, Cross Creek, GVP Climate, Tranquillion, Carica Sustainable Investments, UP.Partners, and the All Aboard Fund. Signaling a decisive shift in market confidence toward the commercial potential of hidden, naturally-occurring geothermal systems, Zanskar will use the funding to spearhead one of the largest ever expansions of American geothermal power by supporting construction on multiple geothermal power plants throughout the Western U.S. 🇺🇲 We’ll also expand our industry leading AI discovery platform and exploration drilling programs, setting the stage for rapid growth in the geothermal sector. 📈 Read the The Wall Street Journal article from Benoît Morenne with pictures from his recent site visit, here: https://lnkd.in/eWdUPk8b Read the full release here: https://lnkd.in/edAyQHQB Special thanks to all our investors who’ve supported us from our earliest beginnings! 🙌 Prime Impact Fund Azolla Ventures 👀 #geothermal #AI #artificialintelligence #baseloadpower #power #energy