Posted on 03/02/2022 12:30:38 PM PST by algore
Quaise Energy, a startup out of MIT, based in Boston and Houston, recently secured $40 million in funding to help it get the first drilling rig off the drawing board.
The system works by drilling down to base rock, then firing high-power millimeter waves into the ground, without the need for complex mechanical drills that are limited by the pressure and intense heat deep into the crust.
Regular metal drills get broken or just melt beyond a certain depth, when the heat and pressure becomes too much for them to handle.
The goal is to be able to repurpose existing fossil fuel power plants, replacing burning coal with 900F heat from miles below the surface of the Earth.
The firm hope to have the first drilling platform live by 2024, the first wells producing up to 100 megawatt of geothermal energy by 2026, and fossil power plants repurposed by 2028, delivering clean energy around the world.
Being able to tap into a globally available supply of geothermal energy requires drilling much deeper into the Earth than currently possible.
The Kola Superdeep Borehole in Russia holds the record for deepest produced hole, going down about seven miles, but even that isn't enough for Quaise Energy.
They suggest that drilling would need to go down to about 12 miles below the surface in order to reach rocks hot enough to power massive power plants
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
The earth’s core is constantly shifting. HOW ON EARTH DO THEY THINK THEY CAN KEEP A 12 MILE DEEP HOLE OPEN?!!
Can you say , “Super Volcano”
The volcano blow up in the Pacific ocean near Fiji wasn’t enough???
Well, it made sense on paper.
Energy is pretty much evil to the greens no matter how clean it is.
Nuclear is the logical solution for electricity but it was demonized like Trump for decades. The regulatory and legal burdens to nuclear are so great that we are running 40 year old technology in the industry with more problems than we would have using newer tech for nuclear power.
The public has a misshapen opinion of nuclear power and they fail to understand that much of the “green” movement is really just an anti-capitalistic scheme for globalism.
Nobody supports dirty air or water but we do have alternatives that are far better for the environment and our electricity needs.
...or a boiled fish restaurant....
What could go wrong?
It hits a certain fault and splits the planet into pieces and spews out magma, creating our own asteroid belt.
:)
12 miles? The 2 longest drill lines went about 3 or 4 miles before it got too hot... If it’s too hot then it should be hot enough to harness steam from it, eh?
I don’t want the planet cooled off.
It’s environmentally unfriendly.
I will take a stab at your very legitimate question. I had the same question when I read about this years ago.
As I understand it, there is a large sweet spot just underneath the stable crust and the molten ocean around the core. This article makes it sound as if they are aiming to drill into the core itself but I do not think that is correct.
Fair warning, besides being a bit of a closet nerd who reads a lot about stuff like this I have no expertise on the subject. There are a lot of hypotheses about this subject and none have been tested to my knowledge.
Sounds like they are setting up a Solyndra pump and dump.
How much does it cost to reach that depth? How much does it cost to retrieve this energy, in proportion to the energy retrieved? How much more will the resulting earthquakes cost the world?
Do the math, and show whether this is a good idea or not.
“I also remember how they claimed Nuclear Energy would make electricity so cheap it would not be metered.”
It might have if special interests hadn’t taken control. The last thing the globalists want is cheap energy. If this works then some way will be found to shut it down. Cheap energy means freedom. The last thing the govt and Deep States want.
It might save some bother if they drill near a volcano.
But that doesn’t address slight shifts causing the hole casing to crack and seal. Longer the hole, greater the odds of that happening, and the greater the time and money to repair.
Scientists don’t lie.
TRUST the Science.
the Earth needs to be Injected, and then it will need lots of booster shots in special strategic places.
We must SAVE the Planet
The earth is too cold- we need to open up vents all over the world to warm it up some-
“I also remember how they claimed Nuclear Energy would make electricity so cheap it would not be metered.”
Now we know why the tree-huggers do not like nuclear energy. They would not be able to make money with nuclear energy.
From the article: “ The Kola Superdeep Borehole in Russia holds the record for deepest produced hole, going down about seven miles.”
Interestingly, they tried to get samples up but the molten rock was like super heated plastic, and last I heard, they gave up.
So this group is going to go five miles even deeper and thinks they’re going to be able to “release steam” and covert that into usable energy??
Ok, let’s pretend they did invent the drill that will be capable
Of burrowing through super heated rock that’s in a plastic taffy form (oh yes a drill would LOVE arhat type of substance)…,
But how is said super drill going to be powered? Will it be solar???? No???? Battery solar???? Why not?
Yes and no. There will always be slight movement but absent earthquakes ground shift is usually minimal closer to the surface. This is how/why we have 50 year old plus oil wells at very deep depths. The outer crust of our planet is relatively stable absent earthquakes.
My primary concern about this idea is how would you prevent upward migration of magma given the probable pressures.
It is an interesting concept.
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