Company:Quaise
| Industry | Geothermal Power |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2018 |
| Founder | Carlos Araque, Matt Houde, Aaron Mandell |
| Headquarters | Cambridge, Massachusetts , |
Key people | Carlos Araque Chief Executive Officer |
| Products | Millimeter-wave drilling |
Number of employees | 20+ |
| Website | quaise |
Quaise, Inc was founded in 2018 to develop a millimeter-wave drilling system for converting existing power stations to use superdeep geothermal energy.[1] The system repurposes existing gyrotron technology to drill 20 kilometers beneath the surface, where temperatures exceed 400 °C. No fracking is required, avoiding the potential for earthquakes that have occurred in other geothermal systems.[2][3] Drilling using this technique is hoped to be fast, with boreholes aimed to be completed in 100 days[4] using existing 1MW gyrotrons.
Overview
Existing geothermal power stations can only be deployed in rare locations where adequate heat is located within 3 km of the surface.[5] These resources are of a comparatively low temperature, and require seismically risky stimulation techniques. Further, drilling at these depths is expensive and slow. {{Citation needed}}
Instead, Quaise plans to drill quickly to deep depths using a gyrotron and waveguide, vaporizing the rock by heating it. {{Citation needed}} Temperatures at 20 km depth are above the supercritical point of water, which allows ten times more energy to be transferred given the same volumetric flow.[6] The supercritical water is then used in a supercritical steam generator which may previously have been powered with fossil fuels. {{Citation needed}}
Comparison with other power sources
The approach proposes advantages compared with other power sources:
- Constant 24-hour generation - Maximum output always available. Does not require storage. Wind and Solar are intermittent generators. {{Citation needed}}
- Small land footprint - Consumes less than 1% of the land area of wind or solar for the same maximum output.[7]
Status
In October 2021, Quaise began initial testing of gyrotron boring at Oak Ridge National Laboratory[8] and plans to have a full-scale gyrotron drilling rig completed by 2024.[9] By 2026, the company hopes to have achieved 100MW of geothermal power output.[10] By 2028, Quaise aims to have converted an existing fossil-fuelled power plant to run on geothermal steam.{{Citation needed}}
See also
References
- ↑ "Quaise Launches with $6 Million to Unlock Earth's Most Abundant Clean Energy Source". https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200608005111/en/Quaise-Launches-6-Million-Unlock-Earth's-Abundant.
- ↑ "The Interchange Recharged podcast: Quaise Energy digs deep – into the world of geothermal | Wood Mackenzie". https://www.woodmac.com/news/opinion/the-interchange-recharged-podcast-quaise-energy-digs-deep--into-the-world-of-geothermal/.
- ↑ "Quaise's ultra-deep geothermal drilling plans: Your questions answered". https://newatlas.com/energy/quaise-deep-geothermal-drilling-questions.
- ↑ "Fusion tech is set to unlock near-limitless ultra-deep geothermal energy". https://newatlas.com/energy/quaise-deep-geothermal-millimeter-wave-drill/?itm_source=newatlas&itm_medium=article-body.
- ↑ Fridleifsson, Ingvar (2008). "The possible role and contribution of geothermal energy to the mitigation of climate change". IPCC Scoping Meeting on Renewable Energy Sources, Proceedings: Vol. 20, No. 25, pp. 59–80.
- ↑ Shnell, Jim; Elders, Wilfred (2019). "Exploration And Development Of Supercritical Geothermal Resources On The Ocean Floor". PROCEEDINGS, 44th Workshop on Geothermal Reservoir Engineering: 3. https://pangea.stanford.edu/ERE/pdf/IGAstandard/SGW/2019/Shnell.pdf.
- ↑ "Fusion tech is set to unlock near-limitless ultra-deep geothermal energy". https://newatlas.com/energy/quaise-deep-geothermal-millimeter-wave-drill/.
- ↑ "Geothermal - Quaise Begins Testing of Potentially Disruptive Geothermal Drilling Technology - Renewable Energy Magazine, at the heart of clean energy journalism". https://www.renewableenergymagazine.com/geothermal/quaise-begins-testing-of-potentially-disruptive-geothermal-20211006.
- ↑ "Quaise Energy". https://www.quaise.energy.
- ↑ "Energy from the earth, for the earth | MIT Technology Review". https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/12/17/1040735/energy-from-the-earth-for-the-earth/.
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