Geothermal Isn't Expensive: The Reservoir Always Has the Final Say Somewhere beneath a volcanic ridge, a drill bit is turning through rock that has not moved in two million years. It costs money every second it turns. And nobody on the surface — not the engineer, not the financier, not the minister who announced the megawatts — knows yet whether that well will produce steam or silence. That single moment explains almost everything people get wrong about geothermal energy. Geothermal is routinely described as expensive, slow, capital-hungry and haunted by drilling risk. Investors are reminded that tens of millions can disappear underground before a single megawatt reaches a grid. All of that is true. But it is not the whole truth. The uncomfortable question the industry keeps avoiding is this: is geothermal expensive, or is the way we develop geothermal making it expensive? Those are two completely different problems. One is geology. The other is us. Why Geothermal Refuses to Be...
⚡Quaise Energy’s Groundbreaking Demo: Drilling with Pure Energy — A Revolution Rooted in MIT
Posted by Robert Buluma — November 2025
In the heart of Marble Falls, Texas, the earth trembled not from an explosion, but from innovation. Quaise Energy — a bold spinout from the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) — has just proven the impossible: drilling through granite using pure energy, not physical bits.
This September, the company hosted the first of several live public demonstrations of its millimeter-wave drilling system — a technological leap that could redefine the future of geothermal energy.
🔥 The Birth of a Drilling Revolution
Quaise’s CEO Carlos Araque calls it “the first drilling innovation in 100 years.” He believes this breakthrough can unlock clean, renewable geothermal power on a scale rivaling fossil fuels.
And that’s not hyperbole. With early funding and research support from MITEI, Quaise is turning decades of plasma and fusion science into the key that could finally open the planet’s vast, untapped geothermal reservoir.
At the core of this innovation lies a gyrotron — a high-power beam generator long used in nuclear fusion experiments. The idea of turning its firepower on Earth’s crust came from Paul Woskov, a research engineer at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center.
“I thought, why not direct these high-power beams, instead of into fusion plasma, down into rock and vaporize the hole?” — Paul Woskov, MIT News
💡 From Fusion Labs to Geothermal Frontiers
When MITEI issued a call for new geothermal drilling concepts back in 2008, Woskov responded with an idea that sounded like science fiction: use energy beams to vaporize rock. MITEI’s support enabled him to run proof-of-concept tests, and the results were groundbreaking.
Fast-forward to 2018. Araque, then technical director at The Engine (MIT’s venture fund for deep-tech startups), saw Woskov’s research — and saw the future. Together with co-founder Matt Houde, he launched Quaise Energy to commercialize the discovery.
Their mission? To reach geothermal depths previously deemed unreachable — where the heat is so intense, it could provide limitless clean power anywhere on Earth.
🪨 Record-Breaking Drilling: Five Meters per Hour through Granite
In July, Quaise drilled a 118-meter-deep hole under real-world field conditions — a monumental milestone outside laboratory settings. But the real show came in September, when the team drilled through granite — one of Earth’s hardest rocks — at up to five meters per hour.
For comparison, conventional drilling operations average just 0.1 meters per hour in granite. That’s a 50-fold improvement — pure energy melting the rock instead of grinding it.
Henry Phan, Quaise’s VP of Engineering, highlighted the achievement as proof that their technology can scale beyond the lab and into commercial viability.
🌍 Toward the Energy Transition’s True Workhorse
At the demonstration, Araque declared,
“We aim to make geothermal the workhorse of the energy transition, and we won’t stop until we succeed.”
That’s not just ambition — it’s a call to reimagine what geothermal can be. Imagine drilling kilometers deep into the Earth to tap a continuous, carbon-free heat source capable of powering cities indefinitely.
This isn’t just a milestone for MIT or Quaise. It’s a milestone for humanity.
⚙️ Alphaxioms’ Perspective
As a consultancy deeply embedded in renewable energy innovation, Alphaxioms sees Quaise’s progress as a pivotal shift — one that aligns with our own vision of a geothermal-powered world.
This innovation holds profound implications for:
- Next-generation geothermal exploration — where energy beams replace bits and wear.
- Lithium and mineral extraction from geothermal brine, as deeper wells yield richer chemistry.
- Wireless energy transmission, bridging geothermal baseloads with futuristic delivery systems.
MITEI’s early role in nurturing this concept underscores the importance of research-industry partnerships — a model Alphaxioms advocates for Africa’s geothermal frontier.
🌋 A Glimpse into the Future
If Quaise succeeds, the world could tap geothermal energy anywhere, not just in volcanic regions. Deep drilling could reach the extreme heat required for “superhot rock” systems — effectively making every corner of the Earth a potential power plant.
From fusion labs to granite quarries, this technology embodies what innovation looks like when science dares to dream .
Source:Quaise
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