A Conversation with Cindy Taff, CEO of Sage Geosystems - A Dramatic New Energy System with plans to provide power in Hawaii
Cindy Taff explains Sage Geosystems:
Cindy Taff CEO of SAGE Geosystems
“Sage Geosystems (Sage) is a leader in the next-generation geothermal industry, pioneering the use of Pressure Geothermal, which leverages both the heat and the pressure of the earth to enable three applications: energy storage, power generation, and district heating. Pressure Geothermal also broadly expands where geothermal can be applied, allowing it to be deployed globally.
This is the Sage Geothermal Exploratory well on St. Vincent, an Island in the Caribbean. Cindy believes there is a large potential market for geothermal energy in island states.
1. What are your goals in developing geothermal on islands like the Big Island of Hawaii or St. Vincent in the Caribbean. This is very different from prospecting on the Mainland or Asia. Do you see Island nations as new markets
Given the very high costs of electricity on islands or from microgrid power around the world, including in Hawaii, Sage's Pressure Geothermal technology can offer unique alternatives for energy storage and geothermal power generation that are low-cost, especially compared to the current diesel sources. Direct heat is another application of Pressure Geothermal. Hawaii's unique geothermal resources and their need for energy storage to pair with wind and solar, give Sage a clear opening. The comparatively small footprint of Sage's facilities and resource usage (such as a smaller impact on local water supplies, even compared to existing traditional hydrothermal geothermal operations) makes Sage a more environmentally friendly option. Energy security for local communities and military installations can also provide an important resiliency factor.
2. I read through your very interesting slide deck presentation and wonder how Sage Geosystems developed its patented cycling - Pressure geothermal technology as it is different from the others. What is its background history? Is its technology related to the Fenton Hill Project of 1972? => Sage went to the field quickly to test our geothermal fracturing technologies and while operating the fracture, we saw the same challenges that EGS experienced as reported by the U.S. DOE Fenton Hill project and seen even today. We therefore decided to leverage the "huff-and-puff" method of the O&G industry, which was the cyclic method that evolved into our Pressure Geothermal. With that being said, the scientists on our team, Lance Cook and Lev Ring, read all the Fenton Hill reports and books, especially those involving Don Brown. We have learned from these U.S. DOE reports, both what to do and what not to do in the subsurface! Sage's in-house expertise in both modeling and Managed Pressure Drilling (MPD) operations helped encourage our Pressure Geothermal technology.
3. Have you always been in the energy business? How did you start in Shell Oil? What was your first job in the energy field? Did you aspire to be a CEO? => Cindy Taff has always been in the energy business. She started at Shell in 1985 as a Production Engineer after receiving a BSc in Mechanical Engineering. Cindy's last job at Shell was VP over Shell's global Wells & Logistics operations, managing a $1 billion annual budget, with operations in Canada, the U.S., South America, China, and Ukraine. Cindy had the opportunity to leave Shell after 35 years and start Sage Geosystems, and she never looked back. She started at Sage in 2021 at Chief Operating Officer (COO), and moved to CEO the next year, and has never looked back!
Cindy in the center with her field crew. Sage Geosystems Team - [Left to Right] Brianna Byrd, Dayton Trichel, Jason Peart, Cindy Taff, Shannon Bolton, Parker Anderson
4. Energy is largely considered a man's field. However, there are many women involved in this field in Hawaii. Was it difficult for you to enter the energy engineering profession? => It was not difficult at all. When Cindy was younger, she was always curious about how things work, and worked on bikes and cars, so studying Mechanical Engineering was a natural progression and there were few women in this field of study as well. Cindy was always a bit of a tomboy growing up, so there is no discomfort being around men. In fact, looking back she finds it strange that most of the difficulties Cindy experienced at Shell was with female supervisors, not male supervisors.
5. How is that Meta became involved in Sage Geosystems as opposed to the other next generation geothermal companies? => This would be best told by Meta, but from what we understand, Meta vetted the other next-generation geothermal companies and their technologies and concluded that Sage's approach had the best near- and long-term potential for resilience and affordable energy.
Cindy overseeing a drilling project
6. There is a concern in Hawaii about 1) maintaining the purity of island water and 2 earthquakes. How does Sage plan on dealing with these issues? => Sage performs detailed geologic analyses prior to drilling, which includes evaluating potential water sources for the power plant operations and hiring a 3rd party to study and recommend an induced seismicity (i.e., earthquakes and tremors) monitoring and mitigation plan. Monitoring and mitigation operations focus on pre-drill and operational characterization and monitoring for water losses, quality and pressures. Sage's Pressure Geothermal system consists of one fracture network connected to a single well and operated like a 'lung' which moves the water between two wells, but in the surface facility. Earthquakes are activated when water is pumped across a naturally occurring fault, and lubricates the fault enough to make it slip, the slippage is the earthquake or tremor. As Sage operates our fractures like a lung, intersecting a fault would pull the water away from our fracture and result in extremely high-water losses, meaning our subsurface system nor power plant would not function. Sage expects to be regulated in terms of water usage permits, water quality protections and drilling permitting, among many factors that could impact the public and shared resources. Sage technologies have a very low to zero demonstrated induced seismicity risk, as demonstrated in our field operations in Texas since 2021, and as tracked by a 3rd party geological survey monitors (University of Texas Bureau of Economic Geology, with all data published publicly online at TexNet). Sage would pursue a similar monitoring and mitigation program in Hawaii. Sage understands the importance of this issue as a license to operate, and plans continuous baseline and operations monitoring at the < M1 scale that can be assessed in real time with operations to ensure operations continue without seismicity.
7. Does Sage see itself in a race for market share with Fervo and Eavor Loop
technology or are they complementary applications? => The next-generation geothermal Total Addressable Market (TAM) is huge and will have room for several players. With that being said, all three companies (Sage, Fervo, Eavor) are currently in the field drilling wells and building power plants and using significantly different technology. As an industry, we will have results and know answers in the next 1-3 years. It is a very exciting time to be in next-generation geothermal. We compare it to where wind and solar were on the learning curve 15 years ago. What you will see in the next few years is a rapidly developing ecosystem with startups testing their approaches, and the learnings being leveraged on the next facility, and so forth.
9. What is your projected timeline for work in Hawaii? Since some of your work will be DOD related do you have an idea on how you would like to proceed? => To be transparent, the timeline for a Sage project is governed mainly by two things: (1) an off-take agreement with a credit-worthy counterparty (for bankability of the project) for a project at a reasonable scale (50-100MW or more) and a reasonable cost, and (2) project funding underpinned by the off-take agreement. For some projects, as with the U.S. Department of Defense for example, the next step would be to perform an in-depth feasibility study which examines the project in detail but also enables the building of relationships. The in-depth study covers the geology, drilling site(s), preliminary well(s) design, preliminary power plant design, geothermal system level modeling, permitting, water, and techno-economics. Sage's first commercial 3MW energy storage facility was built near Christine, Texas at a lignite coal plant just south of San Antonio. It was delivered in 12 months from funding to "ready to store," and we're now awaiting the grid interconnection. Geothermal power generation facilities will have a slightly longer lead time of 24-30 months. For Hawaii, the timeline may be longer to enable review of the geothermal development potential, understanding the regulatory environment, assessing the drilling infrastructure in state versus what needs to be brought in, etc.
10. Can Sage energy storage systems be used to store hydrogen fuel for next generation aircraft, bus or ships in Hawaii? If it did this could be a potential game changer for Hawaii's economy. => Sage is partnering with a company called GeoRedox, from MIT. Here is the press release:https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/03/27/3050605/0/en/GeoRedox-Announces-New-Stimulated-Geologic-Hydrogen-Approach-and-Strategic-Partnership-with-Sage-Geosystems.html
Thank you
