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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

#71

Post by goodpoint »

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…

> earthquakes, screwing up water tables, or leaking gas and other chemicals out of the ground

You seem to be describing fracking which is a completely different technology.

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

#72

Post by throwaway22032 »

Animats wrote: post #62
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…

Ah, good. Someone from the drilling industry. Has anyone ever tried microwave drilling? Using gyrotrons to generate enough microwave power to cut and weld glass has supposedly been tried. The company that was doing it seems to have disappeared.[1] Ticker symbol changed from GYTI to GYTIE, indicating failure to file financial statements, and the stock price went to zero. They were talking about this as a precision hea…

Wouldn't the energy beam push you away from the surface just as well? I get that you don't need to exert torque, but you'd need to stabilise it somehow.

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

#74

Post by jillesvangurp »

d--b wrote: post #3

Can anyone with experience comment on how realistic that is? Both in term of drilling, and in terms of how much power we could extract per drill.

Drilling the hole is the hard part and something this company is claiming they have a new solution for. It will be interesting to see if they manage to drill holes.

Once you have that, the rest is easy. But drilling deep is hard. When I say hard, think expensive. The problem with geothermal so far has been not that it is impossible but that it is expensive to drill holes. Also pumping water in and out holes requires pumps and pipes and machinery that needs maintaining. So, there's a cost associated with that as well. And of course the amount of energy you can get out is proportional to the diameter of the hole. To scale you need to drill more holes. Which is expensive.

That's why geothermal is mainly used in places where you don't have to drill very deep.

So, technically feasible, maybe. But the real question is whether it will be economically feasible.

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

#75

Post by thehappypm »

throwawayboise wrote: post #15
mcculley wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am aware of the 2nd law. I am looking for data on the magnitudes involved. Every time there is a promise of very cheap energy, I wonder how we will deal with the waste heat.

The waste heat will be radiated away to space. The premise of global warming is that CO2 (and other "greenhouse" gasses such as methane) cause more of the heat to be retained in the atmosphere.

However bringing heat from in the earth to the surface (while not creating new heat) does increase atmospheric heat.

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

#76

Post by stubish »

mcculley wrote: post #30
seiferteric wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The magnitude is the same as current power sources that they would be replacing i.e. 100's of MWs to 1-10s of GWs. The amount of heat being brought up would have to be about the same as you would otherwise be getting from coal, gas etc and so the same amount of heat would be vent to the environment.

The claims about geothermal and fusion are that they will make energy ridiculously cheap. Won't we use much more if it is cheap?

Energy will only ever be as cheap as the government allows, because it gets to tax it.

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

#77

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel »

D_Alex wrote: post #51
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

And that was over three decades ago, you'd kind of expect technology to advance a bit in that time.

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

#78

Post by BenjiWiebe »

huqedato wrote: post #6

Sound too good to be true. 2024: First full-scale hybrid drilling rig -> 2026: First Super Hot Enhanced Geothermal System rated to 100 MW... -> 2028: First powerplant. This false prophet reminds me of Theranos/Elizabeth Holmes. Always skeptical when hearing about such unicorns hunting for idiots' money.

Well we don't even have to wait very long to see if that prediction is accurate.

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

#79

Post by totalview »

goodpoint wrote: post #71
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…

> earthquakes, screwing up water tables, or leaking gas and other chemicals out of the ground You seem to be describing fracking which is a completely different technology.

Actually, I’m describing peoples misconceptions and fears to any process that penetrates deep below ground for resources (energy included). The general public will always be bringing up perceived or real dangers to drilling that deep (as they should, there is a lot of dangerous chemicals and radioactive materials that come from large well bores).

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

#80

Post by totalview »

Animats wrote: post #62
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…

Ah, good. Someone from the drilling industry. Has anyone ever tried microwave drilling? Using gyrotrons to generate enough microwave power to cut and weld glass has supposedly been tried. The company that was doing it seems to have disappeared.[1] Ticker symbol changed from GYTI to GYTIE, indicating failure to file financial statements, and the stock price went to zero. They were talking about this as a precision hea…

They have tried it out before but most, if not all, industrial oil and gas drilling activities are performed with Rotary drilling or a Coiled Tubing rig (which still drills via a rotating cutting bit). I do not work at a drilling technology center, so I cannot speak to what innovations are currently being examined next, but if it was proved cheaper or better petrochemical companies would be using it.
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