MIT plans to dig the world’s deepest hole for unlimited energy generation. And to do that, he raised a total of $63 million in funding.
Called Quaise Energy, the company’s vision is to harness the power of geothermal energy. While the concept isn’t new, it’s not as popular as wind or solar, mainly because there are not many geothermal energy hotspots in the area.
The company plans to change that by digging & drilling holes in the crust to record breaking depth.
Today, the deepest holes drilled in our planet’s crust reach a maximum of 12.3 km: the Russian Kola Superdeep borehole. And while it’s an engineering marvel, Quaise aims to reach a depth of about 20 km.
It plans to do this by drilling less and burning more along the way. Developed at MIT’s Plasma Center Science and Fusion Centre, Quaise plans to use millimeter long-waves of electromagnetic radiation to force atoms to melt together.
Devices known as gyrotrons are known to efficiently release continuous beams of electromagnetic radiation by shaking electrons at high speed inside a strong magnetic field. Pairing megawatt-powered gyrotron with the latest cutting tools, Quaise plans to reach depths of about 20 KM in months.
At this depth, temperatures can reach up to 500 degrees Celsius, perfect for turning any liquid water released down there into vapour that can be used to generate electricity.
Using seed & investment funds, Quaise plans to launch field deployable devices offering proof-of-concept operations by 2024, with an operating system expected in 2026.
