Khosla-backed Mazama Taps Super-hot Rocks In Race To Deliver 24/7 Power

As grids travel nether strain from increasing request from information centers and EVs, geothermal startups person been racing to unlock power that lurks heavy wrong nan Earth. Now, 1 startup has developed nan world’s hottest geothermal good — 1 that harbors capable power to powerfulness thousands of homes.

Mazama Energy said coming that it had drilled a good successful Oregon that reached 629˚ F (331˚ C) astatine nan bottommost of nan borehole. Vinod Khosla, whose patient Khosla Ventures incubated nan company, mentioned nan milestone connected shape coming astatine TechCrunch Disrupt.

“This 1 tract tin nutrient 5 gigawatts of energy,” Khosla said.

The imaginable astatine different sites could beryllium moreover larger. “It’s not tens of megawatts, arsenic accustomed [with] geothermal wells. You tin do gigawatt scale, and frankly, do 100 gigawatts aliases much — much than AI is projected to usage adjacent term, conscionable from ace basking geothermal.”

The institution is hoping to yet drill into moreover hotter rock, up to 750˚ F (400˚ C), to beryllium capable to make astatine slightest 25 megawatts of energy from 1 borehole. That would beryllium astir 2 to 3 times much powerfulness per borehole than competitors are generating today.

Geothermal powerfulness has existed for decades, but astir powerfulness plants pat shallow resources that hap wherever things for illustration basking springs bring power from nan Earth’s mantle person to nan surface. Enhanced geothermal developers drill boreholes that are deeper and entree greater and much accordant heat. The exertion promises to make geothermal much productive and disposable successful much places.

Because it relies connected nan Earth’s heat, enhanced geothermal tin present energy 24/7. It’s why companies like Google person inked deals to person geothermal powerfulness information centers.

Enhanced geothermal has nan imaginable to fulfill important portions of existing and caller power request successful nan U.S. Wells drilled successful nan Great Basin region centered connected Nevada could present 10% of existent request successful nan country, according to nan U.S. Geological Survey.

Tapping deeper rocks could unlock moreover much powerfulness utilizing less resources. By injecting h2o into hotter wells, nan magnitude of power per borehole tin ramp up significantly. Mazama said that it should beryllium capable to usage 75% little h2o than existent geothermal systems.

“At 450˚ [Celsius], you get 10 times nan powerfulness per good than you get astatine 200˚. Guess what? You besides get dramatically little cost, costs competitory — without worrying astir c emissions — to earthy gas,” Khosla said.