Soviet-era tech could change the geothermal industry
The Krafla geothermal power plant in Iceland, for example, is able to produce 500 GWh of electricity annually. It has a whopping 33 boreholes
MIT research engineer Paul Woskov spent 14 years developing a technique to employ gyrotrons, normally used to heat plasma, to drill geothermal wells. Gyrotrons emit microwaves and have been used in physics research for decades; Woskov's repurposing gives the venerable devices a new use case.
According to folks at the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project, the first gyrotron was developed at the Institute of Applied Physics (the Russian Academy of Sciences) back in 1964.
Despite their age, gyrotrons haven't been well publicized in the scientific community, Woskov said. "Those of us in fusion research understood they were very powerful beam sources – like lasers, but in a different frequency range. I thought, why not direct these high-power beams, instead of into fusion plasma, down into rock and vaporize the hole," Woskov said.
Commercialization of Woskov's gyrotron drill comes from Quaise Energy, a company spun out of MIT. Woskov does not work for the company, but serves as an advisor.
