#35 Quaise Energy
Microwave drilling pioneers unlocking Earth's heat
Read time: 4 minutes
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Today we’ll distill a company that’s revolutionizing geothermal by using millimeter waves to access deep Earth heat: Quaise Energy 🇺🇸
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What Problem Does Quaise Energy Tackle❓
They focus on the limitations and challenges of geothermal energy production. If you want to learn about geothermal energy explained in simple terms check my article. The key issues include:
1. Depth and Temperature: Current geothermal drilling technology is limited in reaching deep enough to access super-hot rock temperatures (up to 500°C) necessary for efficient energy production. Drilling to depths of 20 kilometers is required to access these temperatures, which is beyond current capabilities.
2. Engineering Challenges: Drilling at such great depths poses significant engineering challenges, including material removal, maintaining well stability, and handling high pressures and temperatures.
3. Scalability and Cost: Existing geothermal methods are not scalable to meet global energy demands. The cost and technical complexity of current geothermal drilling methods limit widespread adoption.
So yes, a very tough engineering problem.
Product / Service 📦
Quaise Energy’s solution? They created a millimeter wave drilling technology for accessing deep geothermal energy. This technology uses high-power microwaves to vaporize rock, enabling the creation of geothermal wells at unprecedented depths of up to 20 kilometers!
Here are the key benefits:
Clean Energy Source: Quaise's method provides a carbon-free energy source by harnessing geothermal heat, replacing fossil fuels and reducing carbon emissions.
Scalability: The technology can be deployed globally, leveraging existing fossil fuel infrastructure and workforce, making the transition to clean energy faster and more efficient.
Economical Access: By repurposing abandoned coal power plants and utilizing existing transmission lines, Quaise reduces the need for new infrastructure, making clean energy cheaper and more accessible.
High Power Density: Geothermal energy produced can match the temperatures of coal-fired power plants, ensuring baseload power output. FYI baseload power —> the minimum amount of electric power needed to be supplied to the electrical grid at any given time.
Market 🌐
The global geothermal energy market was valued at approximately $7.3 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow significantly, potentially generating terawatts (1 terawatt lights over 1M homes for a year) of clean power.
Other Key Players
Fervo Energy 🇺🇸: Develops next-generation geothermal power plants using advanced computational models, horizontal drilling, and distributed fiber optic sensing to generate carbon-free energy.
Eavor 🇨🇦: Specializes in closed-loop geothermal technology, offering dispatchable and baseload-capable power for commercial heating applications.
Founding Story 🦄
Quaise Energy was founded in 2018 by Carlos Araque, who brought extensive experience from his 15-year tenure at Schlumberger, leading product and technology development.
Araque, along with co-founder Matt Houde, who had worked with geothermal company AltaRock Energy, aimed to commercialize a technique developed at MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center. This technology involves using millimeter-wave drilling systems, specifically gyrotrons, to vaporize rock and access superdeep geothermal energy.
The idea was born out of Araque's decade-long work on the technology while at MIT, where he was part of the Electric Vehicle Team and later focused on fusion research.
The vision is to convert existing fossil fuel-fired power plants to geothermal energy, leveraging the existing energy infrastructure and workforce to accelerate the transition to clean, sustainable energy. Quaise has already raised a lot of money, including a $52 million financing round in 2022.
Top Impact Stats 📈
Deep geothermal power plants can create 10 times more energy than conventional geothermal resources.
Quaise's approach uses less than 1% of the land and materials of other renewables.
Deep geothermal can provide 24/7 power, unlocking near-universal access to clean energy.
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