Quaise Inc., an MIT spinout that developed a millimeter wave drilling technology to access deep geothermal energy, has raised $6 million in seed funding. The investment was led by MIT's venture arm, The Engine. Silicon Valley investor Vinod Khosla, who helped found the company, and Collaborative Fund also participated in the round.
Founded and headed by the former technical director of The Engine Carlos Araque, Quaise is in the process of developing and commercializing technology that was invented at the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center.
The startup will use the funding to build a team across Boston, Houston, Texas and Cambridge, U.K., establish field development partnerships and set up research collaborations with institutions.
"All energy comes from the sun," said CEO Araque. "With the exception of geothermal energy and minerals. Geothermal is universal and global but it doesn't manifest itself with high enough power for energy consumption."
Araque noted that in countries such as Iceland and New Zealand, geothermal is more popular because of its availability and more importantly, the drilling technology used to access it. Geothermal is a key source of energy El Salvador, the Philippines and Kenya too.
Araque sees a big potential for geothermal energy use in the U.S., where it currently stands at 0.3 percent of the total energy consumption. "It's the underdog of energy, but has enormous potential. "
"We said, 'how can we make it as powerful as fossil fuels,'" he said. "A geopolitics-free, a local, clean energy resource. But we have to access it first."
That's where Quaise comes in. Geothermal energy has been limited in its use in the U.S., due to the lack of efficient drilling technology. MIT research engineer Paul Woskov has been exploring the potential of geothermal energy and drilling technologies for a decade. Based on his research, Woskov suggested the use of gyrotron, high-power linear-beam vacuum tubes capable of generating millimeter-wave electromagnetic waves, to melt and vaporize hard crystalline rock.
In 2017, Woskov met what would later become the Quaise leadership team to further develop and commercialize this technology. The startup is working toward accessing depths of 10-20 km (6-12 miles) using this technology.
The $6 million investment comes in addition to a $5 million ARPA-e grant received by MIT, Quaise and Alta Rock, a Seattle-based startup that develops enhanced geothermal systems.
Quaise will begin deploying its technology in Alta Rock's sites in western regions of the country including California, Nevada and Oregon.
