Quaise Energy
Assembly Line
Quaise Energy Raises $21 Million to Accelerate Terawatt-Scale Deep Geothermal Energy
Quaise Energy, the company unlocking terawatt-scale geothermal, announced the closing of a $21 Million Series A1 financing round led by Prelude Ventures and Safar Partners. Mitsubishi Corporation and Standard Investments are among several new investors participating in the round. This latest funding will enhance Quaise field operations and strengthen the company’s supply chain position, while ongoing product development will continue with pre-existing capital.
Quaise is uniquely positioned to harness deep geothermal energy worldwide at 3-20 km below the Earth’s surface. To achieve such a feat, the company has advanced a novel technique to vaporize rock using high-power microwaves in the millimeter range, based on more than a decade of research at MIT and recent testing at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The original MIT experiments have now been scaled up 100x, with field demonstrations commencing this year.
Disruptive Drilling Technology To Help Geothermal Power The World
Quaise is working to that end. The company’s technique replaces the conventional drill bits that mechanically break up the rock with millimeter wave energy (cousins to the microwaves many of us cook with). Those millimeter waves (MMWs) literally melt then vaporize the rock to create ever deeper holes. The title of Houde’s WGC talk: “Rewriting the Limits for Deep Geothermal Drilling: Direct Energy Drilling Using Millimeter Wave Technology.”