Image: Calistemon ( CC BY-SA 3.0 )
What it is
Quaise Energy is trying to reach superhot rock (about 400°C) with millimetre-wave energy from a gyrotron, ablating granite without a downhole drill bit. Energy Global reported that in 2025 the company drilled to 100 metres at a Central Texas field site: a record for millimetre-wave drilling. Before 2025 the MIT-derived system had only made centimetre-scale holes in the lab. One hundred metres is a fraction of the depth a commercial superhot plant would need. Quaise says a more powerful gyrotron is next and sketches a Western U.S. pilot plant as early as 2028.
Problem it targets
Conventional bits struggle in hard, hot basement rock. If you cannot drill that rock cheaply, superhot geothermal stays a map of unused heat.
How it works
A surface gyrotron sends millimetre waves down the hole; the rock vaporizes. There is no downhole hardware in the Quaise telling of the method. Rate, hole quality, and steering at kilometres of depth are the unsolved engineering.
Status and players
Quaise Energy; MIT millimetre-wave research lineage. This is not Fervo’s oilfield-style EGS and not a utility.
Risks and limits
A 100-metre granite hole is not a turbine. Cost, reliability, and whether 2028 slips are ordinary first-of-a-kind risks. Treat “geothermal anywhere” slides as a research aim.
Sources
Energy Global 24 July 2025: 100 m Texas field hole; lab work was centimetres. A record for the method is not a power station.