Geothermal used to mean shallow wells and modest heat. Quaise wants to drill kilometres down and blast the rock with microwaves, and it just raised $134 million to try.
Quaise Energy has raised $134 million to drill for superhot rock deep underground, Bloomberg reports. Prelude Ventures led the first close of the Series B, the company said, with Japanese energy giants JERA and Idemitsu also joining. The round takes Quaise’s total funding to $230 million.
Microwaves instead of drill bits
The pitch rests on one unusual idea. To reach rock hot enough, between 300C and 500C, Quaise must drill far deeper than today’s geothermal wells. Past a certain point it swaps the drill bit for an energy beam and uses microwaves to vaporise the rock.
The technology grew out of more than a decade of research at MIT. The goal is more heat from fewer wells. Deeper, hotter rock yields more energy per hole, and skipping worn-out bits cuts downtime and cost. Founded in 2018, Quaise says this can finally make geothermal cheap.
