Watt lies beneath (Geothermal Energy)
Geothermal energy could provide massive, reliable, low-carbon baseload power, but remains largely untapped due to high upfront drilling costs, geological risk, and regulatory hurdles that deter investment and deployment.
Background
- "Deep" or "enhanced" geothermal aims to generate clean, 24/7 electricity from hot, dry rock deep underground — unlike conventional geothermal, which relies on rare natural hot-water reservoirs.
- *Works in Progress* is an online magazine that champions overlooked engineering and material solutions to big problems, often arguing that physical progress (drilling, materials, energy) gets less attention than digital or policy debates.
- The core challenge: drilling extremely deep into hard, hot rock, then engineering fractures to circulate water and bring heat back up — all with equipment that survives extreme temperatures and corrosion.
- Recent startups (Fervo, Eavor, Quaise) and US government projects (FORGE) are experimenting with fracking-style horizontal drilling, closed-loop systems, and novel drills that vaporize rock. The field is promising but still high-risk and unproven at scale.
- Success would fill a critical gap in decarbonization: a carbon-free power source that runs constantly (unlike wind/solar) and is deployable nearly anywhere on Earth, not just volcanically active zones like Iceland.