# Geothermal Energy is Changing Channel: Real Engineering Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_EoZzE7KJ0 Recap page: https://rapidrecap.app/video/b_EoZzE7KJ0 Generated: 2025-07-16T19:28:03.342+00:00 --- ## Quick Overview Quaise Energy is developing a revolutionary millimeter wave drilling technology, adapting gyrotrons from nuclear fusion research, to access the Earth's deep geothermal heat. This method aims to vaporize rock without physical contact, significantly reducing drilling time and costs compared to conventional methods, potentially enabling a widespread transition to renewable energy by repurposing existing power plants. **Key Points:** - The Kola Superdeep Borehole, the deepest hole ever dug on Earth at 12 kilometers, took two decades to drill and unearthed unexpected scientific discoveries. - Quaise Energy is developing a new drilling technology that adapts gyrotrons, devices used in nuclear fusion reactors, to vaporize rock without physical contact. - This millimeter wave drilling aims to overcome the exponential cost increase of conventional drilling, which can jump from $6 million for a 3 km hole to $27 million for a 6 km hole. - Quaise's goal is to achieve a drilling rate of 1 meter per hour for an 8-inch hole using a 1-megawatt gyrotron, significantly faster than the effective rate of traditional methods. - The initial capital cost for Quaise's drilling equipment for a 7 km deep borehole is estimated at $18.9 million, with electricity costs for drilling a 1 km hole estimated at $75,000. - Key challenges for Quaise include managing water infiltration into the borehole, which can absorb significant energy, and ensuring their high-tech equipment can operate reliably in harsh field conditions. - If successful, Quaise's technology could reduce the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) for geothermal energy to as low as $68 per megawatt-hour in some locations, making it highly competitive with other energy sources and enabling the repurposing of existing fossil fuel power plants. ![Screenshot at 00:09: A bolted metal cover on the ground, revealing a deep, dark hole beneath it, representing the Kola Superdeep Borehole.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/b_EoZzE7KJ0/00-00-09.png) **Context:** Deep within the Earth lies an immense, untapped reservoir of geothermal energy, generated by natural fission reactions in the planet's core. While countries like Iceland can easily access this heat due to geological conditions, most of the world cannot, making geothermal a minor contributor to global energy. The primary challenge is the extreme difficulty and cost of drilling deep enough to reach temperatures suitable for generating super-critical steam, which is highly efficient for power generation. Traditional drilling methods become exponentially more expensive and prone to failure at greater depths due to harsh conditions and equipment wear. ## Detailed Analysis Quaise Energy is pioneering a new drilling technique that utilizes high-power, high-frequency electromagnetic waves generated by a gyrotron to vaporize rock, eliminating the need for traditional drill bits. This innovative approach seeks to overcome the exponential cost and technical challenges associated with conventional deep drilling, which currently limits widespread access to the Earth's immense geothermal heat. The Earth's core, at 6000°C, holds enough energy to power humanity for millions of years, but current drilling methods are too slow, expensive, and prone to equipment failure and borehole collapse at depths required for super-critical steam (around 374°C and 22 MPa). Quaise's technology aims for continuous drilling at a rate of 1 meter per hour for an 8-inch hole, significantly faster than the effective rate of conventional drilling when accounting for drill bit changes and maintenance. While lab tests show promising results, including the ability to melt rock into a stable, obsidian-like casing, real-world challenges like water infiltration and the need for robust, transportable high-voltage power supplies (50 kV DC) remain. Quaise has secured $91 million in funding and plans field trials in Marble Falls, Texas, to validate their technology's economic viability and operational efficiency. If successful, this could drastically reduce the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) for geothermal energy, making it competitive with or even cheaper than fossil fuels and nuclear power, and allowing for the repurposing of existing fossil fuel power plant infrastructure. ### The Promise of Geothermal Energy - Earth's core is 6000°C, with just 0.1% of its heat capable of supplying global energy needs for 2 million years - Geothermal energy is currently a tiny fraction of the world's energy supply due to the difficulty of accessing deep heat - Supercritical steam, formed at roughly 374°C and 22 MPa, is highly efficient for driving steam turbines. ### Challenges of Conventional Deep Drilling - Drilling costs increase exponentially with depth, making deep geothermal wells economically unfeasible in most locations - Extreme temperatures damage drill bits and make rocks tougher to penetrate, slowing progress - Replacing drill bits at great depths is time-consuming and expensive, requiring the entire drill stack to be pulled up - Boreholes become unstable at deeper levels, requiring costly steel pipe and concrete reinforcement, with risk of collapse trapping equipment. ### Quaise Energy's Millimeter Wave Drilling - Quaise Energy is adapting gyrotron technology, originally developed for nuclear fusion reactors, to vaporize rock without physical contact - The gyrotron generates high-power, high-frequency electromagnetic waves that are transported down a waveguide to melt and then vaporize the rock - Nitrogen gas is continuously fed down the tube to extract the vaporized rock, or parameters can be controlled to melt rock into an obsidian-like casing for reinforcement. ### Drilling Costs and Efficiency - Quaise aims for a continuous drilling rate of 1 meter per hour for an 8-inch hole using a 1-megawatt gyrotron, which is significantly faster than the effective rate of conventional drilling - The electricity cost for drilling a 1 km hole is estimated at $75,000, but the overall goal is to minimize total drilling time (aiming for ~100 days per well) to reduce operational costs - Initial capital investment for Quaise's equipment for a 7 km deep borehole is estimated at $18.9 million, including the gyrotron, waveguides, rig structure, and compressors/pumps. ### Real-World Challenges and Future Outlook - Water infiltration into the borehole is a major challenge, as it would absorb significant energy from the gyrotron - Quaise needs to prove its technology can operate reliably and economically in harsh, real-world field conditions, not just in a controlled lab environment - They have custom-built transportable, temperature-controlled high-voltage power supplies and nitrogen generators to support field operations - If successful in reducing drilling costs, Quaise could enable a rapid transition away from fossil fuels by allowing geothermal power plants to be built or adapted almost anywhere, including at former fossil fuel plant sites. ### Onshape CAD Software - Onshape provides cloud-native CAD and PDM solutions, allowing engineers and designers to collaborate in real-time on designs from anywhere in the world - It offers free versions for hobbyists and paid professional/enterprise versions, with trials available, and is browser-based, eliminating the need for powerful local computers - Onshape helps manage design versions and comply with government regulations like ITAR and EAR, ensuring a single, up-to-date source for designs. ![Screenshot at 00:09: A bolted metal cover on the ground, revealing a deep, dark hole beneath it, representing the Kola Superdeep Borehole.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/b_EoZzE7KJ0/00-00-09.png) ![Screenshot at 00:40: A geothermal power plant with multiple cooling towers emitting large plumes of steam, set against a mountainous, green landscape.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/b_EoZzE7KJ0/00-00-40.png) ![Screenshot at 01:07: An animated cross-section of the Earth showing its layers, with the glowing core at the bottom, illustrating the immense heat within.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/b_EoZzE7KJ0/00-01-07.png) ![Screenshot at 02:02: An H2O phase diagram showing the states of solid, liquid, gas, and supercritical water based on temperature and pressure.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/b_EoZzE7KJ0/00-02-02.png) ![Screenshot at 03:00: A graph illustrating drilling cost by depth for a doublet well system, showing an exponential increase in cost as depth increases.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/b_EoZzE7KJ0/00-03-00.png) ![Screenshot at 04:18: A diagram illustrating the Millimeter Wave Drilling System, showing how millimeter waves vaporize rock deep underground and how argon gas removes particles.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/b_EoZzE7KJ0/00-04-18.png) ![Screenshot at 06:25: Real-time footage of a millimeter wave beam vaporizing a rock sample in a lab setting, with sparks and light emanating from the point of contact.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/b_EoZzE7KJ0/00-06-25.png) ![Screenshot at 07:07: Henry Phan, VP of Engineering at Quaise, explaining the differences between their gyrotron and those used in fusion, emphasizing the focus on heat generation for drilling.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/b_EoZzE7KJ0/00-07-07.png) ![Screenshot at 08:15: An animated comparison of a 4-inch hole (12.6 in²) and an 8-inch hole (50.3 in²), with an arrow indicating 10x power for the larger hole.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/b_EoZzE7KJ0/00-08-15.png) ![Screenshot at 11:46: A close-up view inside a drilled rock sample, showing the dark, glassy, obsidian-like material formed by the melted rock, with a finger pointing to it.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/b_EoZzE7KJ0/00-11-46.png)