MIT Spinoff Unleashes Geothermal Gyrotron On Fossil Fuels

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File this one under W for Whack-a-Mole. In an effort to protect domestic fossil energy producers, the new administration in Washington, DC, has been throttling down the US wind and solar industries. However, they forgot that the US geothermal industry has been waiting in the wings for an opportunity to pounce on fossil fuel power plants, and pounce it is.

The Geothermal Baseload Factor

Under the new federal “American Energy Dominance” policy, the White House has emphasized baseload, baseload, and more baseload, meaning power plants that can deliver electricity on a constant 24/7 basis. That’s a convenient way to downplay the importance of wind and solar energy while providing priority treatment for gas power plants as well as coal and oil.

However, the new policy also includes a ticking time bomb within its clauses. “American Energy Dominance” embraces all baseload resources under its wing. That explains why four significant, fossil-competing baseload energy resources made the American Energy Dominance cut, those being nuclear, biomass, hydropower, and geothermal.

That may seem counterproductive in terms of protecting fossil energy interests. However, fossil power plants still have a competitive edge on the baseload scenario. Traditional nuclear power plants are expensive and time consuming to construct. New small modular reactor technology is promised to resolve those issues, but has yet to deliver. Growth in the biomass power plant area is constrained by supply chain costs and storage space expenses, among other factors. The US hydropower industry also faces significant limitations in terms of siting opportunities. In recent years the industry has shifted its focus into pumped energy storage and upgrades to existing faciliites, rather than attempting to build ambitious new Hoover-level dams.

That leaves geothermal energy, which is the most limited of all. Conventional geothermal technology requires the right combination of naturally occurring rock, heat, and water in order to generate electricity under an economically sound scenario. Historically, that has kept the US geothermal industry confined to a few scattered locations west of the Rocky Mountains.

Well, that was then…

A New Dawn For Geothermal Energy

…and, this is now. In recent years, geothermal innovators have been developing advanced systems that fabricate optimal conditions for power generation where none exist in nature. Typically based on drilling techniques developed by the oil and gas industry, these new geothermal systems can be applied in new regions across the US. New Mexico has been identified as one hotspot, and the US Air Force has already pre-qualified a suite of geothermal firms to bid on Defense Department contracts (see more background here).

Among the innovators to surface on the CleanTechnica radar is the MIT spinoff Quaise Energy. Last year the company announced a haul of $21 million in Series A1 financing to support its unique, ultra-deep drilling method.

“A deep geothermal power plant can create 10x more energy than conventional geothermal resources, provide 24/7 baseload power, and unlock near-universal access to clean energy on a small land footprint,” Quaise explained in a press statement in March of 2024.

In the same press statement, Quaise also described its intention to economize by occupying the sites of conventional power plants, taking over their existing transmission assets and other grid resources. “By drilling onsite at thermal generation plants and industrial centers to utilize the existing infrastructure and workforce, a faster energy transition becomes possible,” Quaise explained.

Unleash The Gyrotron!

In the latest news from Quaise, earlier today the company announced a milestone test for its proprietary “millimeter wave technology.”

“Quaise’s millimeter wave drilling system, developed after more than a decade of research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), harnesses a powerful gyrotron to ablate rock for the first time without any downhole hardware,” Quaise explains.

A gyroton is a microwave-emitting device, sort of like microwave oven on steroids, but ablate…what is that, and what is it doing in the geothermal energy industry? The process of ablation is more commonly used in reference to the movement and melting of glaciers, though it also pops up in the nuclear industry as well.

“Ablation is a rapid hydro-mechanical method of disassociating the components of a mineralized material from each other,” the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission advises.

“Ablation is a purely mechanical process,” they emphasize, meaning that no chemical inputs are involved, and no chemical shape-shifting occurs in the minerals being ablated.

Putting two and two together, Quaise has developed a powerful gyrotron that mimics the natural abilities of the Horta, a space creature that is known to move through rock as if it was thin air, leaving only a slim, Horta-sized tunnel in its wake. In Quaise’s hands, that means the ability to tunnel farther into the earth than conventional drilling allows.

“Accessing hotter rock deeper underground enables Quaise geothermal plants to generate many times more energy than traditional geothermal — opening up grid-scale projects that can match the power output of major fossil fuel plants,” Quaise explains.

“Unlike conventional drill bits, which struggle with hard, hot, rocks like granite and basalt, millimeter wave technology allows access to superhot rock — around 752 degrees Fahrenheit (400℃) — typically found deep within the Earth’s subsurface,” the company adds.

One Step Closer To The Geothermal Energy Revolution

Today’s announcement was a significant stepping-stone to commercialization. The test, which took place in Texas, demonstrated the ability of Quaise’s gyrotron to drill through the Earth’s “basement layer” of granite to a depth of 100 meters. “Drilling efficiently through the basement layer is the only way to unlock superhot geothermal worldwide,” Quaise notes.

The 100-meter test is just for starters. Work is already under way on a supersized gyrotron with ten times the power, enabling Quaise to get a pilot power plant up and running as early as 2028, which is just around the corner.

And, just around the corner from 2028 is January 20, 2029, when a new administration will occupy the White House, presumably with a new, more consistent domestic energy policy in hand.

In the meantime, if US fossil energy producers thought they locked in a tailor-made playing field when Congress passed the new White House-supported OBBA (One Big Beautiful Bill Act) tax bill earlier this month, well, they did what they could. However, the global energy transition will persist without them.

Quaise, for one, is already eyeing markets overseas as global corporate energy buyers follow through on their climate commitments. The federal energy policy situation here in the US is also not the deal-breaker many anticipated, at least not as far as geothermal activity is concerned.

While the OBBA practically zeroes out federal incentives for wind and solar development, the investment and production tax credits for geothermal energy made it through the Congressional sausage machine without too much damage.

Image: The US startup Quaise Energy is introducing a powerful gyrotron to the global geothermal industry, capable of ablating through solid rock like an Horta (courtesy of Quaise).