Geothermal energy has been used for thousands of years, powering heating systems as early as the 14th century. It’s getting a big upgrade.
Beyond geothermal, there’s superhot geothermal, which uses ultra-deep drilling to access extremely hot rocks, extracting 5 to 10 times more power per well.
Quaise Energy, a Massachusetts-based startup, is in the market developing the technology, which involves an electromagnetic beam that vaporizes rock. The company’s systems are able to reach superhot geothermal energy up to 12 miles below the service of the earth.
Temperatures that deep can reach 500 degrees Celsius, or over 930 degrees Fahrenheit.
“To access the resource at a scale that actually matters, we have to drill hotter first and deeper second,” said Carlos Araque, CEO of Quaise. “The oil industry routinely drills to depths of 2 to 3 miles, and maybe no more than 150 to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. We need to double or triple that to actually start to get the right resource.”
Quaise’s technology was invented at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2007. The company is working to scale it for commercial use, and demonstrated its technology with oil and gas company Nabors Industries in June. While the drilling itself is costlier, the energy output is so much higher that it’s ultimately a cost savings for the heat.
“We intend to build the first in the world superhot, or super critical geothermal power plant, to show exactly that 10X output that you get by going hotter,” Araque said.
Quaise plans to pilot the plant near Bend, Oregon, and hopes to have it ready by 2028. Nabors sees it as a very timely play.
“The potential of the market, the size of the market, the fact that today’s world with data centers, with AI, with the electrification of everything, we require so much power, kind of at all times,” said Guillermo Sierra, vice president, energy transition at Nabors.
Nabors is also an investor in Quaise. Other backers include Prelude Ventures, Engine Ventures, Safar Partners, Mitsubishi and Collab Fund. The company has raised a total of $103 million.
Sierra said the technology could also help repurpose a significant portion of the labor force that’s working in oil and gas.
At a geothermal event in Washington, D.C., in March, Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright showed strong support for geothermal energy. He said it could help with the growth of artificial intelligence and manufacturing and lower prices for electricity.
Wright also noted that President Donald Trump specifically mentioned geothermal, along with nuclear and hydropower, in his National Energy Emergency executive order. The recently passed tax and spending bill kept funding for geothermal, originally part of the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, while cutting money for other forms of renewable energy.
