Sage Geosystems Inc. (Sage) has announced that its SMECI facility in South Texas has been placed in service, following over 120 days of operation. With this milestone, the SMECI project validates Sage’s proprietary Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) approach which will then be applied to the design of future projects.
Following a land use agreement in 2024 with San Miguel Electric Cooperative Inc. (SMECI), Sage built a first-of-its-kind energy storage facility in Christine, Texas using its proprietary EGS approach. The 3-MW facility sold its first electricity in Q2 2026, and has since been operating under monitoring to evaluate subsurface pressure response, injection and production performance, water management, system efficiency, and reservoir behavior.
Based on the operational data, the system exceeded Sage’s objectives and demonstrate Sage’s ability to engineer an EGS reservoir that repeatedly performs to maximize net power output. Furthermore, Sage’s modeling tool (GeoTwin™) accurately predicted observed operating behaviors, providing additional confidence in the company’s ability to reliably design, predict and manage subsurface performance.
“Our operating campaign at the SMECI facility demonstrates that Sage’s proprietary EGS approach overcomes one of the industry’s most persistent challenges, high water losses in engineered reservoirs, while delivering the consistent performance required to scale next-generation geothermal,” said Cindy Taff, Co-Founder and CEO of Sage Geosystems.
These results validate the core elements of our approach, significantly reduce development risk, and provide a clear path toward reliable, commercial-scale geothermal power.”
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Sage’s proprietary EGS is designed to store water under pressure and produce it in controlled cycles. The aim of the design is to preserve pressure, minimize water and energy losses, and generate greater net power from the reservoir. Over 120 days of operations, the SMECI facility produced consistent results, demonstrated water loss of less than 10% over multiple cycles, and exhibited behavior as anticipated using the GeoTwin™ modeling tool.
The results demonstrated at the SMECI facility validate the core elements of Sage’s proprietary EGS approach and provide the technical foundation to scale into larger, commercial power generation projects, notably the planned geothermal development at an Ormat site in Nevada.
“Commercial geothermal isn’t just about creating a reservoir; it’s about creating one whose performance can be engineered, predicted, and consistent,” added Lev Ring, Co-Founder, President and CTO of Sage Geosystems. “That means understanding not only how a reservoir will perform, as we are doing with our GeoTwin modeling tool, but also how efficiently it can retain water and demonstrate a path to losses below 5%. Predictable reservoirs are the foundation of commercially scalable geothermal.”
Source: Sage Geosystems via BusinessWire
