ALPHAXIOMS Geothermal News & Energy Research

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...

Arverne expands geothermal asset portfolio with new lithium exploration permit in Auvergne Arverne secures 442.7 km² PER “Bassin de Limagne” near Clermont-Ferrand French geothermal developer Arverne (Euronext: ARVEN) has been granted an exclusive research permit (Permis Exclusif de Recherches, PER) for lithium and related substances covering the “Bassin de Limagne” in Puy‑de‑Dôme, Auvergne. The five‑year permit, announced 3 September 2026, spans 442.68 km² and adds to Arverne’s growing national portfolio of PERs: the company now holds nine permits in France, three of which are focused on lithium. The award underscores Arverne’s strategy to combine geothermal heat production with geothermal lithium extraction — an integrated model the company is already deploying elsewhere in France. For the Auvergne permit, Arverne emphasizes that the Bassin de Limagne area overlaps with its existing PER for the Riom‑Clermont‑Métropole, where 3D exploration studies have previously evaluated the subsurf...

Stadtwerke Weimar granted exploration permit for deep geothermal near Weimar — what it means for decarbonising district heat The Thuringian environmental authority, Thüringer Landesamt für Umwelt, Bergbau und Naturschutz (TLUBN), has granted Stadtwerke Weimar GmbH an exclusive permit to search for deep geothermal resources in a roughly 495-square-kilometre licence area centred on Weimar. The permit covers exploration from a depth of 400 metres downward and includes rights to investigate other energy resources that might surface in the process. It is valid until June 2031 and requires regular reporting to the TLUBN; further investigations such as seismic surveys or test drilling will need separate approvals and renewed stakeholder participation. This decision marks a strategic move by the municipal utility as it evaluates options to make Weimar’s district heating system climate neutral. The permission to explore does not commit Stadtwerke Weimar to build a geothermal project; rather it ...

Dublin’s seismic survey will map deep underground geology to assess geothermal potential, reduce uncertainty, and support future clean, local energy development Dublin is about to become a live laboratory for one of the clean energy questions of the decade: can the heat stored deep beneath the city help warm homes, offices, schools, and hospitals? The answer is not known yet, but the Dublin Seismic Survey is designed to find out by mapping the geology 2 to 3 kilometres underground with a safe, non-invasive method that has already been used successfully in other European cities . A city listening underground At street level, the survey may look deceptively simple: a specialist truck pauses at intervals, presses a vibration plate to the road, and sends controlled energy into the ground. That energy bounces off different rock layers and structures, then returns to sensors along the route, where it is recorded and processed into images of the subsurface . The process is built around precis...

The New Energy Frontier: Quaise Energy’s Superhot Geothermal Gambit in Oregon By Alphaxioms Editorial Team | September 4, 2026 In the high desert of Central Oregon, a project with implications far beyond Deschutes County is taking shape. Quaise Energy, now backed by a total of $280 million in funding, is advancing Project Obsidian, which it describes as the world’s first commercial superhot geothermal power plant . The company says the first phase is designed to deliver 50 MW by 2030, with a pathway toward 250 MW and ultimately more than 1 GW . Before the first megawatt reaches the grid, however, the project faces a local policy test: whether Deschutes County should grant a five-year property tax abatement under Oregon’s Rural Renewable Energy Development Zone Program. That decision is more than a routine incentive request. It is a referendum on how rural counties choose to support next-generation energy infrastructure and whether older incentive frameworks can accommodate a technolog...