https://www.sciencealert.com/confidence-grows-in-mit-spin-off-aiming-to-make-the-deepest-hole-for-limitless-energy

Radical Plan to Make Earth’s Deepest Hole Could Unleash Limitless Energy

MIKE MCRAE

9 MARCH 2022

Since its launch in 2020, a pioneering energy company called Quaise has attracted some serious attention for its audacious goal of diving further into Earth’s crust than anybody has dug before.

Following the closure of first round venture capital funding, the MIT spin-off has now raised a total of US$63 million: a respectable start that could potentially make geothermal power accessible to more populations around the world.

The company’s vision for getting closer to the center of the Earth is to combine conventional drilling methods with a megawatt-power flashlight inspired by the kind of technology that could one day make nuclear fusion energy possible.

Geothermal energy has become the forgotten renewable. With solar and wind increasingly dominating the market of green energy, efforts to tap the vast reservoir of heat deep beneath our feet remain stubbornly well behind.

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This is ticking a lot of boxes for my BS detector.

But mainly I can’t find any details on why the developers think this will be more effective than drills.

I see they have to drag the debris back up to the surface, could they process it and use it to line the hole

dv said:

https://www.sciencealert.com/confidence-grows-in-mit-spin-off-aiming-to-make-the-deepest-hole-for-limitless-energy

Radical Plan to Make Earth’s Deepest Hole Could Unleash Limitless Energy

MIKE MCRAE

9 MARCH 2022

Since its launch in 2020, a pioneering energy company called Quaise has attracted some serious attention for its audacious goal of diving further into Earth’s crust than anybody has dug before.

Following the closure of first round venture capital funding, the MIT spin-off has now raised a total of US$63 million: a respectable start that could potentially make geothermal power accessible to more populations around the world.

The company’s vision for getting closer to the center of the Earth is to combine conventional drilling methods with a megawatt-power flashlight inspired by the kind of technology that could one day make nuclear fusion energy possible.

Geothermal energy has become the forgotten renewable. With solar and wind increasingly dominating the market of green energy, efforts to tap the vast reservoir of heat deep beneath our feet remain stubbornly well behind.

——-

This is ticking a lot of boxes for my BS detector.

But mainly I can’t find any details on why the developers think this will be more effective than drills.

If it wasn’t here, i must have read about this in New Scientist.
Drills melt at high temperature, but the proposed method has no problems with high temps at all.

Or so they say.

Oh well, the answer will be in the pudding?

> Geothermal energy has become the forgotten renewable. With solar and wind increasingly dominating the market of green energy, efforts to tap the vast reservoir of heat deep beneath our feet remain stubbornly well behind.

I kept track of the Cooper Basin fiasco. Because my mother had some shares in it.

> I see they have to drag the debris back up to the surface, could they process it and use it to line the hole.

This is often done. Debris dug out of a drill hole is crushed (or filtered) and mixed with bentonite to make drilling mud. It reduced the amount of bentonite needed.

The Rev Dodgson said:

If it wasn’t here, i must have read about this in New Scientist.
Drills melt at high temperature, but the proposed method has no problems with high temps at all.

Or so they say.

It wasn’t here. Yes, drills melt at high temperature, and the surrounding rock can deform to jam the drill.

Yes, “Or so they say”. It sounds awfully expensive to me.

One thing that confuses me is why drill deep at all? The best option for geothermal is always to drill over some hot spot close to the surface. That’s what worked for geothermal in Iceland and New Zealand.

It’s not something I’d be prepared to invest money in.