HIBT Lab! Quaise Energy: Carlos Araque

How I Built This · 4 Aug 2022 · 39m

What this episode covers

Carlos Araque, co-founder and CEO of Quaise Energy, explains how his company plans to unlock global geothermal energy by drilling 20-kilometer deep holes using millimeter-wave technology developed at MIT. Araque details his transition from a 15-year career in the oil and gas industry, including time at Schlumberger, to founding Quaise to address the technological gaps in the energy transition. He discusses the technical mechanics of vaporizing rock with gyrotrons, the economic potential of repowering existing fossil fuel plants, and the challenges of scaling this capital-intensive technology to compete with wind, solar, and coal.

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • Hardware to Save a Planet · 45m

    The Future of Geothermal Energy Generation with Carlos Araque, CEO & Co-founder of Quaise

    Carlos Araque, CEO and Co-founder of Quaise Energy, explains how his company uses millimeter-wave drilling technology, derived from fusion research, to access deep geothermal energy. He argues that geothermal is one of the few renewable sources capable of scaling to the 40-50 terawatts needed to replace fossil fuels, unlike solar and wind which face land and material constraints. Araque details Quaise's approach of vaporizing rock at depths of 3-12 miles to produce supercritical steam, enabling the repowering of existing fossil fuel infrastructure rather than building new plants from scratch. He emphasizes the quantitative scale required, noting that drilling 10,000 wells per year is within the current capabilities of the oil and gas industry.

  • Catalyst · 36m

    Digging deep for super hot geothermal

    Carlos Araque, founder and CEO of Quaise Energy, explains the company's approach to super hot geothermal energy using millimeter-wave drilling technology to reach depths of up to 12 miles and temperatures of 800 degrees Fahrenheit. He contrasts this with traditional hydrothermal geothermal, noting that while shallow super-hot systems (3-4 miles) can leverage existing oil and gas drilling precedents, deeper systems require vaporizing rock to access ubiquitous heat resources. Araque outlines Quaise's roadmap, targeting a commercial-grade flow test in Oregon by the end of 2026, with subsequent milestones for deeper, supercritical wells by 2028.

  • Catalyst · 1h 01m

    Could geothermal become a major zero-emissions player?

    Jamie Beard, executive director of Project Innerspace, discusses the potential for 'geothermal anywhere' technologies to scale globally by overcoming subsurface risks and financing gaps. He explains how enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) and closed-loop technologies can replicate Iceland's success worldwide, while highlighting the critical need to leverage the oil and gas industry's drilling expertise and workforce. Beard also covers the role of geothermal heat pumps in decarbonizing heating and the challenges of securing venture capital and government support for first-of-a-kind projects.

  • Catalyst · 36m

    Going deep on next-gen geothermal

    Dr. Roland Horne, a professor of earth sciences at Stanford University and leader of its geothermal program, discusses the three main pathways for next-generation geothermal: Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS), closed-loop systems, and super-deep geothermal. He explains how EGS, pioneered by companies like Fervo Energy, leverages oil and gas fracking techniques to create permeability in hot rock, potentially making geothermal viable across half of the United States. Horne also details the economic and technical challenges of closed-loop and super-deep technologies, emphasizing that advances in drilling efficiency, such as batch drilling and PDC bits, are critical to lowering costs and accelerating project timelines.

  • Hardware to Save a Planet · 51m

    How AI Is Unlocking Geothermal Power at Scale with Joel Edwards

    Joel Edwards, CTO and co-founder of Zanskar, explains how the company uses AI and geoscience to locate hidden conventional geothermal reservoirs, reducing exploration costs by up to 90%. Edwards details Zanskar's 'flywheel' process of training physics-constrained models on satellite and field data to predict hotspot locations, avoiding the high subsurface risk that stalled the industry after oil majors exited in the 1980s. He highlights the success of their Lightning Dock project in New Mexico, where AI-driven reservoir modeling identified a highly productive well that maxed out the plant's capacity, and outlines Zanskar's goal to reach one gigawatt of installed capacity within ten years.

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