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 ...
Then they can blame it on climate change.
Just send a nuke back down to heat it up again, like how they plan for Mars.
I think I remember that episode. Oh wow, that would have been 40 years ago and that show was old even then! Somehow the Doctor landed on an alternative earth, where they were experimenting with drilling deep into the earth. That destroyed the alternative earth. The Doctor managed to escape back to our earth and warn people not to drill too deep into the earth. He stopped a project just in time on our earth that destroyed the alternative earth.
i’ll prolly get slapped for this, but
once they reach a depth hot enough to create superheated steam, why keep drilling?
volume?
To be clear, I don’t know that this will work nor do the people proposing to invest so heavily in it.
On paper, this is one of the most intriguing ideas out there and it has been for a very long time but a cool idea is no guarantee of success with so many uncertainties.
“I wonder how this ends, I have seen a lot of tv shows and movies where it ends badly.”
True, but the plus side is then we won’t need to worry about climate change at all.
M#y primary concern about this idea is how would you prevent upward migration of magma”
Screen made of titanium over the end... lol
Its posts like this that make me wish FR had a "like" button !
Isn’t that guy dead? I mean, dead dead?
Kinda like general Franco?
5.56mm
That last not coming true wasn’t the fault of the nuclear advocates, but the fault of governments and lawsuit happy envirowackos.
“HOW ON EARTH DO THEY THINK THEY CAN KEEP A 12 MILE DEEP HOLE OPEN?!!”
Bill Clinton has had to confront this very question.
Manatees even, like in Florida.
Enclose a small area and grow some oranges too.
I’m planning on developing a money tree. All I need is $40 million and IF I am successful, you’ll get all your money back and a Journey To The Center Of The Earth!
They are going to let the air out of Mother Erf.
“It hits a certain fault and splits the planet into pieces and spews out magma, creating our own asteroid belt.”
“Magma”
Why drill? Can’t they just go to an active volcano?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.