Quaise Energy
Quaise Energy develops millimeter wave drilling systems to reach superhot geothermal rock and generate baseload electricity.
Founded
2018Quaise Energy develops millimeter wave drilling systems to reach superhot geothermal rock and generate baseload electricity.
The core system is a hybrid rig that starts with conventional rotary drilling to reach basement rock, then switches to high-power millimeter waves generated by a surface gyrotron and carried downhole through standard oil-and-gas tubing acting as a waveguide. A purge gas lifts the vaporized rock back to the surface and the borehole walls vitrify, removing the need for complex downhole equipment.
Beyond the drilling system, the company develops and operates the geothermal wells and power plants that convert recovered heat into electricity. The stated design target is rock at 300 to 500 degrees Celsius at depths of three to twenty kilometers, with the current field programme approaching one kilometer.
Conventional geothermal generation is confined to regions where usable heat sits within a few hundred feet of the surface, so its output has plateaued while solar and wind expanded. Reaching 300 to 500 degree Celsius rock would extend geothermal to a far larger share of sites and let it supply steam at temperatures comparable to coal and gas plants.
The first commercial deployment targets the Pacific Northwest grid, where rising demand and constrained transmission favour firm local generation. Strategic investment from JERA and Idemitsu Kosan, two of Japan's largest energy companies, indicates demand for the technology outside the United States as well.
Ablating rock with directed energy rather than a mechanical bit avoids the wear ceiling that makes conventional drilling uneconomic in hot, hard basement rock, which is what confines existing geothermal generation to a narrow set of shallow, naturally favourable sites. The company states this lets superhot resources be reached in most locations worldwide.
The approach also reuses the drilling rigs, tubing, supply chains, workforce, and permitting frameworks already built for oil and gas rather than new infrastructure. A strategic framework agreement with Nabors Industries adds a dedicated land rig plus integrated reservoir modeling, well design, and drilling strategy support.