Geothermal energy: Investment needed to develop new tech

“It’s the same techniques and up to a point it’s the same industry as well,” sums up Gernot Wagner, a climate economist at Columbia Business School in New York. But “from a climate perspective, there’s a huge difference,” he adds.

For him, the risk of seismic activity, by creating cracks underground, is outweighed by the benefits of an energy source that is renewable, always-on and large-capacity.

“Based on where we are, moving much faster, much bigger in the direction of using much more geothermal, frankly, is all good news,” Wagner says.

Quaise

To go faster and deeper will require advances in drilling technologies.

Companies are developing drilling equipment that is more stable when breaking through hard rock at high temperatures.

Some firms are even aiming to penetrate rock without using standard drills.

Quaise, a company with roots at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is using a technology called millimetre wave drilling. The frequency is similar to that of microwaves.