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Quaise Energy – Unlocking the true power of clean geothermal energy

quaise.energy

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Re: Quaise Energy – Unlocking the true power of clean geothermal energy

#51

Post by D_Alex »

totalview wrote: post #49

I hate to play the Cassandra again, but the deepest hole ever drilled by anyone was 7Km (edit: 12Km), a far cry from drilling 20Km holes everywhere on the earth. I’ve worked in oil and gas for over 10 years, including on the largest rotary drilling rig in North America, and it is insane what kind of machinery it takes to get 6,000 feet down and push a tool 15,000 feet out. Just as insane is convincing anyone that you…

>the deepest hole ever drilled by anyone was 7Km

12.2 km - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kola_Superdeep_Borehole

Re: Quaise Energy – Unlocking the true power of clean geothermal energy

#52

Post by klabb3 »

ajross wrote: post #32
stormbrew wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's gotta work on a balance sheet, not just in a pitch deck. It shouldn't have to work on either of those things, because neither of those things take any account of externalities. This attitude that no energy project is worth doing if it's not profitable is how we're going to kill our entire civilization in a few decades. We need to be thinking longer term than "is it cheaper than coal right now?" when the cost o…

I didn't say "profitable". I said "cheaper than a windmill". That's the standard in this industry. And windmills are really, really cheap. Pick the low hanging fruit, then get fancy. Exotic energy technologies are at best an exercise in premature optimization, and more likely an attempt at soaking the woke masses to fund someone's startup.

Why not both? Windmills are intermittent, hugely dependent on location, short lifespan, requires a lot of space, dangerous to service etc etc. It's not a full solution.

Re: Quaise Energy – Unlocking the true power of clean geothermal energy

#53

Post by derekdahmer »

snarfy wrote: post #38
asimpletune wrote: post #5

Stupid question but is it possible to cool the earth’s core if this tech was scaled out and used massively?

Not today, but maybe someday. (1) - The geothermal heat flow from the Earth's interior is estimated to be 47 terawatts (2) - Human production of energy is even lower at an estimated 160,000 TW-hr for all of year 2019. This corresponds to an average continuous heat flow of about 18 TW [1]- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_energy_budget#Earth'...

Wow 47 TW of heat for the entire earth is so much lower then I ever would have guessed.

The wiki says that its about .08W/m^2. That means it an area of 2-3 football fields only puts out as much heat as a single space heater.

Re: Quaise Energy – Unlocking the true power of clean geothermal energy

#54

Post by idiotsecant »

totalview wrote: post #49

I hate to play the Cassandra again, but the deepest hole ever drilled by anyone was 7Km (edit: 12Km), a far cry from drilling 20Km holes everywhere on the earth. I’ve worked in oil and gas for over 10 years, including on the largest rotary drilling rig in North America, and it is insane what kind of machinery it takes to get 6,000 feet down and push a tool 15,000 feet out. Just as insane is convincing anyone that you…

The whole point is that microwave ablation of these materials does not require drilling mud and is self-stabilizing by the pressures and molten material generated, while also sealing the bore hole and preventing quite a lot of water table, H2S, etc contamination. In theory it should allow substantially deeper boreholes.

The technology is real, and the required power density is surprisingly low.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286571247_Penetrati...

Re: Quaise Energy – Unlocking the true power of clean geothermal energy

#55

Post by foepys »

XorNot wrote: post #23
ajross wrote: post #10

My response here is the same as what I say to proponents of new nuclear technologies: it's gotta work on a balance sheet , not just in a pitch deck. This isn't a new technology enabling new markets and new kinds of growth here, it's just... electricity. And even as a renewable option, it needs to be able to compete not just with fossil fuel generators with-all-the-externalities-factored-in, but with dams and windmill…

Geothermal power is a non-nuclear baseload source of energy though. Unlike all others, it just sits there and makes electricity/heat without other inputs: we should absolutely be throwing public money at it, we should've been doing this all along. Geothermal that you can sink pretty much anywhere would be a gamechanger - it doesn't create local pollution, and it does produce waste heat: built in or neat town areas, y…

When the Swiss tried to build a geothermal power plant, they had quite a few earthquakes which lead to the discontinuation of the whole project: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_seismicity_in_Basel

Boring this deep does have significant risks, especially when we are pumping fluids in and out.

Re: Quaise Energy – Unlocking the true power of clean geothermal energy

#56

Post by uranium »

ncmncm wrote: post #43
snarfy wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not today, but maybe someday. (1) - The geothermal heat flow from the Earth's interior is estimated to be 47 terawatts (2) - Human production of energy is even lower at an estimated 160,000 TW-hr for all of year 2019. This corresponds to an average continuous heat flow of about 18 TW [1]- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_energy_budget#Earth'...

No, because the heat comes out regardless. The difference is whether it is used on the way out. Likewise for solar and wind.

There's the heat that comes out regardless, and the additional heat that comes out if you drill a bunch of boreholes down to let it out, accelerating the transfer.

That being said, it doesn't look like we'll get to a significant magnitude of effect for a long time.

Re: Quaise Energy – Unlocking the true power of clean geothermal energy

#57

Post by uranium »

loufe wrote: post #20

For anybody curious, they seem not to be the only player in this space. http://altarockenergy.com/ also seems to be partnered with MIT on this.

They also appear to be working with Quaise. Scroll down to "projects" and click on the mmWave picture.

'AltaRock Energy,” in partnership with Quaise Energy, is developing millimeter wave (mmWave) technology...'

Re: Quaise Energy – Unlocking the true power of clean geothermal energy

#58

Post by FounderBurr »

idiotsecant wrote: post #54
totalview wrote: post #49

I hate to play the Cassandra again, but the deepest hole ever drilled by anyone was 7Km (edit: 12Km), a far cry from drilling 20Km holes everywhere on the earth. I’ve worked in oil and gas for over 10 years, including on the largest rotary drilling rig in North America, and it is insane what kind of machinery it takes to get 6,000 feet down and push a tool 15,000 feet out. Just as insane is convincing anyone that you…

The whole point is that microwave ablation of these materials does not require drilling mud and is self-stabilizing by the pressures and molten material generated, while also sealing the bore hole and preventing quite a lot of water table, H2S, etc contamination. In theory it should allow substantially deeper boreholes. The technology is real, and the required power density is surprisingly low. https://www.researchga…

Vaporized into what? Something that you’ll have to keep heated to 5000c for 20km until you can vent it?

Re: Quaise Energy – Unlocking the true power of clean geothermal energy

#59

Post by voldacar »

yabones wrote: post #28
XorNot wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. (1) because just how massive the Earth is a number you don't fully comprehend, and (2) because the Earth is actively warming itself from ongoing decay of nuclear isotopes which sunk to the center during it's molten phase, so really we're just tapping into a big pile of decay heat.

There's also a huge amount of internal friction created by the moon stretching and squeezing the earth, I believe that accounts for more heat than nuclear decay. Regardless, there's no way we can realistically impact planetary dynamics by blowing some cold water down tubes to the mantle, there's simply too much thermal mass - so yeah geothermal is a fantastic and reliable energy source.

>There's also a huge amount of internal friction created by the moon stretching and squeezing the earth

Wow, I hadn't even thought of that. How much heat does this produce, roughly? For context, the total heat lost from the earth's interior is about 47 TW according to another comment, so in order for the earth to not heat up I assume that moon friction heat + nuclear decay heat < 47 TW?

Re: Quaise Energy – Unlocking the true power of clean geothermal energy

#60

Post by scotty79 »

FounderBurr wrote: post #58
idiotsecant wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole point is that microwave ablation of these materials does not require drilling mud and is self-stabilizing by the pressures and molten material generated, while also sealing the bore hole and preventing quite a lot of water table, H2S, etc contamination. In theory it should allow substantially deeper boreholes. The technology is real, and the required power density is surprisingly low. https://www.researchga…

Vaporized into what? Something that you’ll have to keep heated to 5000c for 20km until you can vent it?

Apparently that's what they intend. I wonder how you can keep 20km oven warm enough.
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