The Sun is the most known and most important star to us. It gives us light, warmth, wind, a sense of security and energy. Did you know that virtually all of the electricity we produce comes directly or indirectly from the Sun?
Energy is heat. We are able to directly capture the sun’s rays and convert them into electricity, but wind, waves, coal are also a product of solar energy. Differences in the heat and temperature given by the sun blow the wind we use to turn wind turbines. Thanks to this heat, rivers flow, which we damage to generate electricity with hydroelectric power plants. Almost all of the electricity we consume comes directly or indirectly from the sun, with the exception of nuclear power plants that split or connect atoms and geothermal energy.
Very close, just below our feet, in the very center of the Earth, the temperature is higher than on the surface of the sun, but this geothermal energy was not available to us due to the lack of technological solutions. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with the Quaise project has finally decided to extract this energy from the depths of the earth.
The Quaise Project
The MIT startup has received huge funding for the use of fusion energy technologies. It will have the ability to drill 12 miles (19.2 km) into the earth’s depths and extract enormous amounts of geothermal energy.
The startup is called Quaise in 2022. collected $ 40 million in February. dollar funding. The project says the funding will be used to use fusion technology to drill the deepest hole on earth ever. If the Quaise project succeeds, it could give humanity access to almost limitless and clean geothermal energy.
“People will need huge amounts of energy without a trace of CO2 for decades to come”
Mark Cupta, CEO of Prelude Ventures and one of the company’s investors, said in a press release.
“The Quaise project can provide one of the most resource-efficient and extremely widely used solutions. It will provide the population with cheap electricity.” he added. By the way, this project will start in the near future.
The benefits of the project
The deepest hole ever drilled in the earth was in the 1970s. Kola borehole in Russia, its depth is 12 262m. Unfortunately, it was not possible to drill deeper because the drill simply melted due to higher-than-expected temperatures (180 °C) and high-density rocks.
The Quaise startup will use a machine called the Girotron. This device generates millimeter electromagnetic waves to superheat the plasma in fusion reactors. Instead of reactors, these waves will be directed directly to earth and are expected to reach a depth of 12 miles and a temperature of approximately 500 °C thanks to electromagnetic waves.
It could be a total revolution in the energy sector in the world. By pouring water into a drilled hole, the water will boil quickly and the resulting steam will be able to spin the turbogenerators, thus simply generating electricity anywhere in the world. This technology will be available in both the private and public sectors.
Quaise will launch its first full-scale demonstration machines in 2024, with the first commercial launch in 2026.
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