Due to an audacious goal of discovering more about Earth's crust than anybody, a pioneering energy company known as Quaise has gotten a lot of attention since its 2020 launch.
The company has already closed its first round of venture capital funding, raising an impressive sum of US$63 million, which might open up geothermal power to a larger portion of the world's population.
Traditional drilling methods will be used in conjunction with an enormous megawatt-powered flashlight inspired by nuclear fusion technology in the company's plan to get near the Earth's core.
Efforts to Tap Into the Massive Heat Reservoir
In the era of renewables, geothermal energy has been mostly overlooked. Despite the growing dominance of solar and wind power in the green energy industry, efforts to tap into the massive heat reservoir beneath human feet remain persistently behind schedule, as per Science Alert.
It's not difficult to see why this happened. In spite of the fact that geothermal energy can be a great source of clean, continuous and endless power, there are only a few locations where hot rocks appropriate for extraction can be found nearby.
Quaise hopes to remedy this situation by creating a method for measuring the depth of holes baked into the crust. However, scientists have only gotten as far as 12.3 kilometers under the planet's surface with their current best efforts. In spite of their limitations, the Kola Superdeep Borehole and others like it are impressive engineering achievements.
Scientists next step would be to come up with a means to grind away at rock that's been compressed by a mile-long distance above, and then bring it back to the surface.
It is also necessary that digging tools can still crush rock at temperatures above 180°C (356 degrees Fahrenheit). Some innovative thinking would also be required in order to turn the drill bits over such a long distance.
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How Researchers Plan on Digging the Hole
MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center nuclear fusion research led to Quaise's solution: millimeter-long electromagnetic radiation pulses that melt atoms together. Electrons are shaken at high speed inside powerful magnetic fields by devices called gyrotrons, which efficiently produce continuous beams of electromagnetic radiation.
If Quaise is able to connect its megawatt-power gyrotron to modern cutting equipment, it expects to be able to cut through the toughest, hottest rock in just a few months.
To generate energy at these depths, the surrounding rock can reach temperatures of over 500 degrees Celsius, which is enough to turn any liquid water pumped in from the surface into an ideal supercritical fluid, as per Express.
Quaise expects to have field-deployable devices offering proof-of-concept operations in the next two years using its seed and investment money. A functioning electricity system might be in place by 2026 if everything goes according to plan. As early as 2028, the business intends to take over coal-fired power plants and convert them to steam-powered ones.
Will the Technology Really Work?
You can bet there are going to be a lot of questions about how, and if, this technology is going to work. Carlos Araque, the CEO and co-founder of Quaise, has been asked to answer a number of questions by Loz Blain at New Atlas.
Even without this technology, the earth's geothermal reservoirs could provide enough energy to power about 17% of the world's population. Nearly 40 countries could currently rely only on geothermal energy.
Despite this, less than half a percent of the world's power comes from the heat beneath our feet. Geothermal energy must expand at a rate of about 13% per year in order to meet the goal of net zero emissions by 2050. It's currently only a fraction of what it could be.
Scientists have plenty of room to grow, even if they don't find a means to increase its scope. To what extent firms like Quaise can revive interest in this underdog is still up for debate.
There is no doubt, however, that the window of opportunity to reduce emissions and set a lower global warming target is fast closing. Researchers have touched rock bottom, so perhaps it's time to delve a little deeper and look for new solutions.
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