Geothermal: The future of energy located a mile underground

For decades, Americans have been sitting on an energy jackpot buried beneath their feet. But Mother Earth hasn’t exactly made it easy to harness.

Geothermal energy, or capturing the intense heat of the Earth’s core to use as energy, is the one renewable source that even politicians on opposite sides of the aisle can agree on, thanks to its low-carbon footprint and mostly domestic supply chain.

However, projects attempting to harness geothermal energy have consistently failed or fallen short over the years, largely due to cost overruns and the fact that previous tech would only work with existing, naturally occurring underground reservoirs of hot water.

Things are now poised to change

Decades of research by the US Department of Energy has laid the groundwork for scientific breakthroughs that are now making geothermal energy a serious contender.

• Unlike past projects, the new generation of geothermal plants don’t require water to be naturally present beneath the surface.
• Instead, they use locally supplied water that’s pumped a mile underground—deeper than ever before—where it absorbs the Earth’s heat, then brings that energy back to the surface to spin turbines and generate power.

Startups like the Bill Gates-backed Fervo Energy are able to drill that deep thanks to new fracking-style techniques and diamond-encased drill bits. Fervo plans to start sending power to the Utah grid next year.

It doesn’t stop there. Another startup, Quaise Energy, is taking things even further, using microwave technology to drill down deep and reach rocks so hot that water pumped down there becomes a fourth state of matter. This strange stuff can theoretically produce 10x more energy compared to conventional hot water from beneath the Earth, per Quaise CEO Carlos Araque.

Looking ahead…Experts say geothermal tech could soon be far cheaper than natural gas in terms of total cost per unit of energy, and could also eventually be less expensive to set up as well.