(Graphic courtesy of EDCO)
All eyes were on Quaise Energy at the 2026 2026 Geothermal Rising Conference, the flagship conference for the geothermal industry, in late September. An announcement was made from the U.S. Department of Energy that Quaise is among five entities selected for an award of up to $25 million to support the company’s work on what it believes will be the world’s first commercial superhot geothermal power plant,
Only a month earlier the company announced a close of $180 million in Series B financing led by Nabors Industries and Prelude Ventures, with participation from JERA Co., Inc. and Idemitsu Kosan.
According to a 2025 report from the Clean Air Task Force, “If successfully developed, [superhot rock, or]SHR could supply 63 terawatts of firm, carbon-free power by tapping just one percent of the world’s SHR resources – more than eight times current global electricity generation.”
Today, however, rock at those superhot temperatures can be accessed at only a few locations around the globe, such as Iceland, where it is relatively close to the surface. There are power plants under development at those locations, but none are online yet.
The mother lode of geothermal energy is some four to 12 miles beneath the surface. That can’t be accessed today because we can’t drill down far enough. Drills used by the oil and gas industries can’t withstand the formidable temperatures and pressures found that far down. As a result, drilling becomes exponentially more expensive with depth.
Quaise aims to solve the problem with a completely new way to drill using millimeter wave energy (cousins to the microwaves we cook with) that can literally melt and vaporize rock.
Project Obsidian, currently under construction in Oregon, aims to be the world’s first commercial superhot geothermal power plant.
