The company used the technology last year to make a discovery in Nevada, and it says that same modeling also helped pinpoint where to most productively drill at the Lightning Dock site. “They haven’t discovered anything revolutionary,” Horne says of the techniques used at the Lightning Dock site. This has been a big year for the geothermal industry, particularly for companies that are using new technologies to tap the earth’s heat. Enhanced geothermal company Fervo Energy went public in May, raising $2.2 billion, although there has been a pullback in stock prices since its debut. Venture capital investors — who typically have veered away from geothermal — have also been putting money into the industry, says Stephanie Díaz, a senior associate at BloombergNEF.