Seattle-based startup Endurance Energy recently tested the world’s first subsea geothermal power plant at Axial Seamount, an active underwater volcano about 300 miles (500 kilometers) off the coast of Oregon. The results, announced last week, show that its technology is technically feasible.

The company’s “Adélie” test plant harnessed the seamount’s hydrothermal fluid to generate 8.7 seconds of net-positive electricity, producing a median of about 2 kilowatts of net power and peaking at 16.5 kilowatts of net power. That’s a tiny amount of energy, but the goal of this first test was simply to show that Adélie could generate more than it consumes. With that milestone achieved, engineers can now work toward higher power and longer sustained generation, but getting there will be challenging.

Endurance, founded in January 2025 by former SpaceX engineer Andrew Redd, is considered the first commercial venture into subsea geothermal energy. The company envisions a future where its commercialized systems provide continuous, weather-independent, clean electricity to coastal grids and industrial sites around the Pacific and, eventually, worldwide.

It’s developing its first commercial project in the Kingdom of Tonga and targeting first power in 2027—an ambitious timeline given the results of this first test. Experts told Gizmodo that Endurance faces a long, arduous road to commercial viability, but Redd expressed confidence that his company will scale.

“Many of the places with the strongest offshore resources also depend heavily on imported fuel,” he told Gizmodo in an email. “For them, this is a chance to replace diesel with clean, local baseload power and real energy security.

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