The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 21 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 6 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Solar and wind alone would match CO2's ecological harm, says Araque
“I think it would, but the ecological consequences would be just as bad as putting CO₂ into the atmosphere.”
Araque: Only fission, fusion, and deep geothermal can scale to humanity's needs
“So when you look at that, I think there's only three things that can do it. The first one is indeed nuclear fission. As you just mentioned, it has the scalability and the power density to do it. The second one is fusion, which is what the sun does, but it's st…”
Araque: Quaise Can Reach 20-Kilometer Depths to Unlock Global Geothermal
“So we think we can get to 20 kilometers. This is twice as deep as we've ever drilled as humans, and precisely what's needed to make geothermal totally global and ubiquitous.”
Araque: Gyrotron millimeter waves can vaporize any subterranean basement rock
“Anything that's down there in the basement rock
Can be vaporized through this.
if you try to vaporize a metallic wall, it's not going to work, but there's no metallic walls down there.
So, so rock vaporizes.”
Araque: Millimeter-wave drilling creates vitrified glass walls that stabilize deep boreholes
“So when you're drilling the energy, you use temperature to stabilize the hole, and it basically keeps itself open.
It creates a glass wall that's very, very, very strong.
We've seen this in the lab.”
Araque: Existing power plants can be repowered with geothermal in weeks
“Yeah, I mean, the power plant's already built, and all we have to do is to feed it the steam that's carbon free. And you can do each one in weeks. That's precisely the play we're after.”
Twelve 8-inch deep geothermal wells could power all of San Francisco
“They're only eight inches in diameter, so absolutely you can. Yeah, I don't think you can do it with anything else, but you're right. It's 12 wells for that amount of energy to run San Francisco.”
Araque: Geothermal could supply 20% of global energy by 2050
“So let's say by 20 50 we have on the order of one to five terawatts, that's probably a healthy 20% of global energy needs, but certainly after that, you know, you start talking about the majority of energy coming from here.”
Energy transition is blocked by technology, not politics, says Araque
“So I became convinced that the reason we don't transition energy is first and foremost because we do not have as a species that technology to do it. Politics play a role, but it is really a technological gap first and foremost.”
Araque: Drilling at most 20 kilometers unlocks global geothermal energy
“Well, if you want to cover the entire planet, if you want to make sure every single human being has access to geothermal energy, not just a little bit of it, not just a little bit to bathe in hot water, but also to power every single appliance and every single…”
Quaise will start field drilling in 2024, repower plant by 2028
“So, twenty-twenty-four is what we say we're going to do, and after that, you start the journey towards repairing a power plant, and that takes us the better part of the rest of the decade. So, twenty-twenty-seven, 28 is when we intend to repair the first power…”
Araque: The Global Energy Transition Will Happen in Our Generation
“You know, the energy transition will happen in our generation. It has to happen”
Quaise will drill deep geothermal wells next to existing power plants
“So we would do this very close to an existing power plant, because we want to pump water into that hole, we want to convert it to steam, and we want to run the steam through the power plant.”
Drilling a 20-kilometer deep geothermal well will cost just $20 million
“Twenty million dollars. Just twenty million dollars. Okay. Twenty million dollars. Twenty million dollars per well if it's 20 kilometers.”
Araque: Quaise Energy has two oil and gas company investors
“We have two investors that are oil and gas companies, and they're very, very keen and very supportive of doing this technology.”
Araque: Deep geothermal drilling avoids methane by drilling past fossil layers
“Yes, because we're not drilling into methane. We're drilling way, way below that, right? So we're just drilling into hot, dry rock. You know, we're talking about kilometers beyond where oil and gas normally is found. So, so you're really not tapping into those…”
Araque: There are 10,000 thermal power plants built worldwide
“We have 10,000 Power plants built in the world.”
Quaise has only drilled inches in lab, aiming for feet by 2022
“Oh, it's in the lab, right? So we're talking about Inches. A couple of inches going towards feet by the end of the year.”