[giarc]

On a recent podcast, I believe the founder said that at 6 miles (close to your 30k well) that this technology could be used anywhere. However, I think they could only get 3-4 mile wells at this point. So if we already have the ability to drill 6 miles with conventional tech, why not just do geothermal with conventional drilling?

[ufmace]

The technology being discussed hasn't actually drilled much of anything yet. Their latest press release with actual numbers[0] gives depths drilled in inches. Nice progress, yeah, but they're not anywhere near competitive with even water wells, much less the current generation of conventional oilfield drilling technology.

Geothermal power is indeed cool, but to get it usable anywhere on Earth instead of a few places where magma currents happen to be near the surface, we'll probably need several orders of magnitude deeper and wider holes than we're currently capable of drilling just for starters. Can these guys do the job? Maybe, but let's just say I'm not planning to invest in them.

[0] https://www.quaise.energy/news/from-lab-to-field-testing

[Animats]

> The technology being discussed hasn't actually drilled much of anything yet. Their latest press release with actual numbers[0] gives depths drilled in inches.

That's what bothers me about this. If drilling with microwaves works, why aren't there industrial applications? Laser cutters are widely used, from little ones that engrave plastic to big ones that cut steel plate. Yet nobody seems to be selling microwave cutters. In industrial applications, you don't even have to fit the microwave generator into the hole and keep it working in a hostile environment.

The idea was suggested back in 2002, but seems to have gone nowhere.

[1] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/11075717_The_Microw...

[Retric]

Microwaves are a longer wavelength of light which makes them less precise. So people don’t use them to cut stuff for the reason lithography swapped to ultra violet light.

This wants to dump a lot of heat into a large area, and there’s industrial uses for that: https://industrialmicrowave.com/industrial-microwave-heating...

You also have a device at home that uses microwaves for heating larger volumes of material…

[MostlyStable]

My understanding from earlier encounters with reporting about this company, is not that we can't do geothermal drilling without it, it's that it's not always cost-effective. Drilling is expensive and the cost is a significant fraction of the total capital investment in a geothermal energy plant. In order to make geothermal cost effective everywhere, drilling needs to be made less expensive. This company is not about doing what is currently impossible, it's about doing what is currently possible cheaper

[cnote337]

We do use conventional drilling for geothermal!

We just have to be more selective with the location to ensure that there is heat nearer the surface. They're right, if you drill deep enough, it's hot everywhere. Even in non-geothermal oil and gas wells, we commonly have temperatures that exceed 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Our tools that we send down whole are commonly rated for 300-350 degree temperatures. Plenty of temperature down there!

Although I admit, I'm an oil and gas guy and don't really have any industry knowledge of geothermal.

[doodlebugging]

He is probably on a rig drilling a deviated well to 30k+ total depth (TD) so that it is not a vertical well 30k+ feet deep or 30k' true vertical depth (TVD), it is instead a deviated well with a long vertical section before the kickoff point which deviates the drillbit to the target at some horizontal displacement from the vertical borehole with the total length of the drillstring being 30k+ feet when they reach TD (total depth). With horizontal drilling and use of steerable mud motors you aren't rotating the drill string constantly as you drill the deviated section and this allows one to push the bit through the formations until you reach the target.

Drilling 6 miles vertically without using a media to conduct cuttings to the surface would be a major change in how things work. I don't think that glassing the inside of the borehole by fusing cuttings as you drill will create a durable borehole. We used to have problems with electronics desoldering at depth in our MWD tools. It gets hot and the pressures can be enormous.

Former Scumbagger MWD engineer here.

[cnote337]

How dare you Scumberger! (Me sitting in a scumberger wireline unit rn)

You're completely right doodlebug, our MD is around 30,000 with a TVD of about 26,000' (ballparking here so i'm not violating any contracts).

I also appreciate your other comments here!

[doodlebugging]

I can't edit that other comment any more. I did once because I had a long anecdote trying to give context to the pet name I apply to them. After I reread it I felt like it was too long and meandering.

So I wrote a longer, more meandering reply to explain the other one. I'm deleting that one too. Too much stuff. Suffice to say that my time with them was interesting, not fun, full of organizational dysfunction on levels I never thought possible. I hope you are having a nice career with them. I cut mine short to save my own sanity and everything else that I loved and cared about.

[cnote337]

Oh I don't work for them, just with them. I'm an independent contractor now after 5 years with exxonmobil. Cut my career short there for the exact same reasons. Talk about organizational dysfunction!!

[doodlebugging]

I totally get that too. Right after I struck out as an independent contractor a long time ago, I did some stuff for ExxonMobil. Very smart people there. Very tight, collaborative structure. It was easy to see how they had been so successful for so long. Lots of things working in sync. Totally unlike the situation at Scumbagger where you advanced quickly if you could get your snout far enough up the FSM's ass. If you were like me and came from an oilfield culture where ass-kissing could get your ass whooped before they fired you (seismic field crews never put up with any bullshit), then it didn't work for me at all. My FSM actively held me back and denied promotions that I had earned, moving the goalposts every time I hit the expected target. I wasn't the only one. He openly bragged that his payroll burden was the lowest in Anadrill for all regions globally because he had the least number of SFEs on his payroll. He said that he delayed promotions at all levels to keep his numbers low. He had come out of college with an MBA on a fast-track to management.

Life is full of new experiences. Every day finds you at another node on the decision tree that will ultimately define and document your life to others. Pick the wrong path and your options at the next node will be less attractive than those behind you. Pick the right path and you can continue like branches on a hackberry, making the most of every opportunity to continue growing toward the light.

Had I followed the path that vengeful rage had offered me I would never have had the opportunities to polish my skills and grow my career into a successful consultancy. They got off easy because I chose to take the long view for my family's sake and chose to let it slide while taking every opportunity to find another job. If I had let it be personal then a lot of things would be different.

[doodlebugging]

They earned any moniker that I apply. Hopefully none of the people that I worked with are still there.