As reported by Vice, Quaise Energy (a start up company) has been raising funds to dig 12 miles into the earth, almost twice as deep as ever before. The goal is to harness the heat from deep within the earth at about 500 degrees Celsius by pumping water into these holes, which will turn into steam to be used in the generation of electricity.
Geothermal energy is not a new science, it is in fact similar to the ground source heat pumps which some people are installing in their back gardens (at an average depth of 75 to 200 metres). However, until now it has generally only been utilised in areas where hot rocks are close to the earth's surface (such as tectonically active fault lines). Quaise Energy hope to develop technology that will allow this energy source to be used anywhere in the world and "once the setup is complete, they could provide limitless energy to a region for up to a century".
From a real estate perspective, this technology could provide clean energy from much smaller areas of land than solar and be less visually intrusive (and potentially safer for wildlife) than wind turbines. Existing buildings could also be utilised, instead of building on more greenfield sites. For example, Quaise Energy hopes to retrofit coal-fuelled power plants into geothermal energy hotspots.
Geothermal energy may emerge as a clean power source alongside solar, wind, hydro