…and for those who prefer their information as text anyway, here’s an article on a very overlapping topic, which likely gives the same information as the video:
Multiple countries, over decades, have tried to drill into the Earth’s crust to reach the mantle without success due to exceedingly hot temperatures in deep bore holes and extremely hard rock formations located under pressure deep underground. From 1961 to 1966, the United States’ Project Mohole tried to drill through the crust out in the Pacific Ocean off of the coast of Mexico. They were only able to reach a depth of 601 ft (183 m) in 11,700 ft (3,600 m) of water. Between 1970 and 1992, Russia’s Kola Superdeep Borehole Project (see Figure 3) reached a record depth of 40, 230 ft (12.2 km) but were only able to drill about a third of the way through the Earth’s crust. In 1990, Germany initiated the German Continental Deep Drilling Program in Bavaria to try to break Russia’s record but were only able to drill to a depth of 5.6 miles (9 km).
Today, boreholes of 7 km are probably reliably attainable with state-of-the-art equipment. This can be very expensive and in most places, ground temperature at 7 km is not sufficient to warrant going there for energy.
The proposed solution: drilling boreholes with a maser (radio frequency laser in the millimeter wave spectrum). The gyrotron would likely sit on surface while the waveguide (antenna) is lowered into ground. Meanwhile, vapours would be blown out with compressed air (or maybe nitrogen, if things keep catching fire).
If the company developing it gets the system to work, boreholes deep enough to reach good quality heat would be possible everywhere on Earth, not just handful of places.
It makes good sense in theory, and I hope they get it working. But its benefits won’t reach many people for at least a decade or two, so while the folks at Quaise Energy do their thing, I suggest that everyone else continue installing renewables and storage. :)
Maybe I should have mentioned that geothermal is a great sustainable and renewable source of energy (wiki)
Also, I’m a bit confused with the source you linked because it is about geoengineering which I believe is a terrible approach (see links bellow) but this site kinda presents geothermal as part of it. Geothermal energy production is not related to geoengineering/climate engineering, in any way.
…and for those who prefer their information as text anyway, here’s an article on a very overlapping topic, which likely gives the same information as the video:
Geothermal Energy with Millimeter Wave or Direct Energy Drilling
The problem:
Today, boreholes of 7 km are probably reliably attainable with state-of-the-art equipment. This can be very expensive and in most places, ground temperature at 7 km is not sufficient to warrant going there for energy.
The proposed solution: drilling boreholes with a maser (radio frequency laser in the millimeter wave spectrum). The gyrotron would likely sit on surface while the waveguide (antenna) is lowered into ground. Meanwhile, vapours would be blown out with compressed air (or maybe nitrogen, if things keep catching fire).
If the company developing it gets the system to work, boreholes deep enough to reach good quality heat would be possible everywhere on Earth, not just handful of places.
It makes good sense in theory, and I hope they get it working. But its benefits won’t reach many people for at least a decade or two, so while the folks at Quaise Energy do their thing, I suggest that everyone else continue installing renewables and storage. :)
Maybe I should have mentioned that geothermal is a great sustainable and renewable source of energy (wiki)
Also, I’m a bit confused with the source you linked because it is about geoengineering which I believe is a terrible approach (see links bellow) but this site kinda presents geothermal as part of it. Geothermal energy production is not related to geoengineering/climate engineering, in any way.