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DRILLING FOR (RENEWABLE) ENERGY REACHES NEW DEPTHS  
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Joe Salas
May 29, 2025
New Atlas
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_ Quaise Energy demo-ed its maser drill bit to go deeper into the
Earth's crust than humans have ever gone. The plan is to drill down 12
miles, where temperatures reach nearly 1,000 degrees F, to tap into
Earth's bottomless well of clean energy. _

The business end (BHA / bottom hole assembly) of Quaise's millimeter
wave drill, credit: New Atlas

 

On May 21, 2025, New Atlas attended a demonstration at the Nabors
facility in Houston, Texas, where Quaise Energy showcased
a _literal_ groundbreaking demo of its millimeter wave drilling
technology, looking to prove its dream of revolutionizing geothermal
energy extraction.

Quaise was officially founded in 2018 as a spinout of MIT's Plasma
Science and Fusion Center. The idea of using a gyrotron
[[link removed]] – a device that
uses high-frequency millimeter waves like a microwave on steroids –
to vaporize rock goes back a decade earlier to 2008 when MIT
researcher Paul Woskov suggested it could be used for deep drilling
where conventional drill bits simply cannot.

The plan is to tap into Earth's spicy deep layers like they're a
bottomless well of clean energy. Quaise wants to drill deeper and
hotter than anything humans have ever attempted to do before –
depths over 12 miles (20 km) below the surface, where Quaise expects
temperatures to reach nearly 1,000 °F (500 °C).

BUT WHY?

Back in 1970, the USSR went on a mission to drill the deepest hole
[[link removed]] ever
made and learn about what hides in the depths below the Earth's
surface. It took them 19 years to do it, but the Soviet Ministry of
Geology made it 7.62 miles (12.26 km) down before hitting unexpectedly
high temperatures upwards of 356 °F (180 °C). That made going any
deeper practically impossible, with constant equipment meltdowns and
budget cuts ... because, you know, the USSR itself was crumbling down
a hole at the time.

The project was abandoned and the Russian Federation officially welded
the cap shut in 1995 – avoiding any messy Kaiju
[[link removed]] incidents.

However, in the process, the Soviets learned some valuable information
that pertains to Quaise's goals:

* The Soviets expected to hit a basalt layer about 4.4 miles (7 km)
underground based on seismic data, but it was just more granite. This
led to a rewrite of basic assumptions on how the Earth's crust is
structured and how to approach deeper drilling.
* As they reached their maximum depth, the temperatures were
significantly hotter than they'd predicted. Geologists expected ~212
°F (100 °C), but instead recorded temps nearly twice as high –
which is fantastic news for geothermal energy extraction.
* There's water _deep_ in the rocks. They found water trapped
miles below the surface, below aquifers and the likes. It was in the
rocks themselves, likely chemically bound to the mineral structures of
the granite from intense heat and pressure, and released when drilled
into.

The heat and pressure 12-plus-miles deep turns regular ol' plain water
into a supercritical fluid where it's neither exactly a fluid nor a
gas, but something in between. It still has the density of a liquid
but flows like vapor. Supercritical water holds significantly
more enthalpy [[link removed]] (heat
energy) than regular steam, meaning more energy from less water.

Traditional geothermal relies on heat to boil water to produce steam
that spins a turbine, thus producing electricity. There's an energy
loss in that process. Supercritical fluid skips the boiling phase
entirely – all while holding more energy density per gallon/liter.
But to unlock this particular _super_achievement
[[link removed]] (which
has been lauded as between "impossible and improbable" in the past),
we need conditions of at least 705 °F (374 °C) and 3,200+ psi (220+
bar).

In those conditions, even the highest-grade steel will soften and
deform at 572 °F (300 °C). Especially-robust carbide and diamond
composites will still break down thermally. And lubricants would
simply evaporate before lubricating. It would be like trying to spoon
lava with plastic cutlery.

Enter Quaise millimeter wave drilling technology.

During the full-scale demo I attended, Quaise fed 50,000 volts DC to a
100-kW gyrotron (a fancy, new, and 60% efficient one) connected to a
Nabors F rig with a custom top drive and other bits, melting a hole
into a granite/basalt mix of rock like butter on a hot day. For the
demonstration, Quiase operated the drill at roughly 48 kW, burning 0.8
inches (2 cm) per minute.

One of the biggest hurdles Quaise had to overcome was keeping the
millimeter wave precisely focused as the drill moved deeper
underground. Imagine shining a flashlight into a deep hole ... it only
reaches so far before it diffuses into the darkness. The beam needs to
be tightly focused the deeper you go to maintain a uniform melt.
That's where the "cube" comes in (pictured below).

It stays topside, directing focused millimeter-wave energy down the
borehole from a dynamic waveguide (also topside, pictured above) that
moves and flexes like an accordion, bouncing the mm-wave from mirror
to mirror to focus it perfectly. That energy travels down the drill
bit to the spinning launcher as it carves out a perfectly round hole
slightly larger in diameter than the 4-inch (10.2-cm) finished bore
itself.

The "BHA" (bottom hole assembly) launcher – basically the death-ray
end of the drill – beams out a Gaussian (cone-shaped) blast of melty
millimeter-wave energy from about eight inches (20 cm) away. The 3,092
°F (1,700 °C) maser flash-melts solid rock into goop that looks like
liquid obsidian. The excess rock goop gets pushed into the walls of
the hole before vitrifying into a glass-like lining.

Another major challenge was continually monitoring the temperature and
distance to target in real time. If the beam overheats the rock, it
ionizes, creating a plasma shield that reflects and scatters the
incoming millimeter waves, drastically reducing the effectiveness of
the novel drill. So the team cleverly built an integrated diagnostic
beam that sort of acts like a radar, piggy-backing on the main mm-wave
beam. It reflects off the borehole and allows the system to measure
temperature and distance to target, telling the drill team when to
throttle power up or down for maximum effectiveness at about eight
inches from the bottom of the hole.

This was all happening ~40 ft (12 m) away and 10 feet (3 m) below the
Earth's surface as I watched the top drive lower and raise a few
inches at a time, while the gyrotron-powered drill did its business.
Outside of the hum of high voltage, hydraulic pressure lines, and
excited oil and gas industry onlookers (potential investors?), it was
all rather uneventful. And I was thankful for that, as I'd told the
wife before leaving "There's a more than 0% chance I could get blown
up today."

But what _is_ eventful – very much so – is the potential for
this equipment and what it can/could/shall/should mean for the future
of energy.

Quaise plans to pair this tech with conventional drilling rigs (that
will tackle the easy top layer), then fire up the beam to melt its way
to the geothermal jackpot of heat energy. Pump water down, turn it
supercritical, pump it back up, spin turbine more efficiently than
ever before, _profit_. Oh, and make an endless supply of clean energy
... coming to a city near you.

Here's a video [[link removed]] I shot from
the top platform while the rig was running so you can see and hear it.

When asked about the future of Quaise, CEO Carlos Araque told New
Atlas "The commercial product is clean energy, not the drill bit." And
that makes a lot of sense. "In the future, we'll divide the world into
Tiers 1, 2, and 3 ... and the LCoE will be between $50-100 no matter
where you are in the world."

Tier 1 being shallower, where conventional drilling methods could be
used. A deeper Tier 2 would have a thermal gradient of 104°F (40°C)
per km, and an even deeper Tier 3 would have at least a 68°F (20°C)
gradient per km – and both would require the use of millimeter wave
technology. Here's a 2.5 minute breakdown by Quaise
[[link removed]].

Levelized Cost of Energy (LCoE) is basically the all-in price tag of 1
MWh of electricity over the lifetime of a power plant. US$50-100 is
very competitive in the US.

Stateside in 2023
[[link removed]],
utility-scale solar
[[link removed]] and
onshore wind are the cheapest to produce electricity, ranging from $24
to $96 per MWh depending on where it's located. Natural gas, which is
our main source of electricity generation (around 43.1%), ranges from
$39-$101 per MWh. Coal-fired plants range from $68-$166 per MWh. And
nuclear, arguably one of the cleanest sources of electricity and
second-most used means to generate electricity (about 18.6%), ranges
from $141-$221.

This could put a Quaise geothermal plant smack-dab in the middle _or
better _than alternatives in terms of LCoE – depending on the depth
and complexity of the well – potentially replacing existing
fossil-fueled power plants altogether with clean, 'round-the-clock
geothermal energy – _anywhere in the world_.

Quaise has gone so far as to create an LCoE calculator
[[link removed]] that will check out
estimated depth, target temp, and LCoE figures across the US by simply
dropping a pin on the map.

Geothermal power plants in the United States account for a mere 0.4%
of the nation's total electricity production. And California alone
produces about 70% of that total just outside of Calistoga – a town
known more for bottled water and Cabernet Sauvignon than powerplants.
Calistoga sits next to the world's largest geothermal field
[[link removed]] and The
Geysers [[link removed]] geothermal plant – the
largest of its kind in the world – has a capacity of about 725 MW
(supplying power to roughly 725,000 homes) of clean, renewable energy
to Northern California.

While the Quaise demo rig was a pretty powerful 100-kW drill, that's
only one-tenth of what Quaise plans for full-scale operations. Next
month, Quaise will have a 1 MW gyrotron on hand to continue testing.
The company has a second test site in Marble Falls, Texas, with rigs
capable of digging down to 492 ft (150 m) at about a foot per hour.

Not bad for a company that only just did its first underground burn
outside of a laboratory this January.

[Quaise dug a plug out of the ground from its first millimeter wave
drilling session. You can see the vitrified walls of the bore]
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Quaise dug a plug out of the ground from its first millimeter wave
drilling session. You can see the vitrified walls of the bore / New
Atlas

According to Araque, Quaise plans to have a 50-MW geothermal plant up
and running outside of Bend, Oregon within three years. It will start
with a 20-MW system using conventional drilling, followed by an
additional 30 MW in the third year using its millimeter wave tech as a
testament to the world of how much more efficient _really_ deep
holes are.

I asked Araque, "If we suddenly have miles-deep holes for every major
city on the planet, how long before we run out of heat for energy?"

"Millions of years at least. Twelve miles really isn't that deep. It's
just a lot of tiny pin-pricks," was his answer.

Considering the Earth's crust is 22 to 25 miles (35 to 40 km) thick on
average under continents, "ventilating" the Earth's core probably
won't be an issue. During my conversation with Araque, I brought up a
previous Q&A he'd done with New Atlas, addressing our readers'
questions about deep holes ... we had a good laugh about Sleestaks.
You'll likely enjoy his answers
[[link removed]] too.

World's First MMW Hybrid Drilling Rig

_Joe Salas [[link removed]]' penchant for
writing developed as he started capturing his personal adventures and
experiences, along with photos, as part of his 4theriders photography
business. As fate would have it, Joe's life on two wheels came to an
abrupt halt in July 2022 thanks to a freak accident, which also
sidelined him as an action photographer._

_Joe writes from the heart – to the best that his high school
education will allow – and hopes to give you a laugh, to inform, and
to connect. When not scouring news and technology feeds, Joe spends
his days as dad to two adorable little girls, and his nights trying to
stay awake long enough to play a bit of Starfield._

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