Quaise has attracted some serious attention for its audacious goal of diving further into Earth's crust than anyone has done before.
The MIT spin-off raised a total of US$63 million after the first round of funding closed, which could potentially make geothermal power accessible to more populations around the world.
The company wants to get closer to the center of the Earth by combining conventional drilling methods with a megawatt-power flashlight inspired by the kind of technology that could one day make nuclear fusion energy possible.
The forgotten renewable is Geothermal energy. With solar and wind dominating the market of green energy, efforts to tap the vast reservoir of heat deep beneath our feet remain stubbornly well behind.
It is easy to understand why. There are very few places where hot rocks suitable for geothermal energy extraction are close to the surface.
Quaise wants to change that by developing technology that will allow us to bake holes in the crust.
The skin of the planet has bottomed out at around 12.3 kilometers. The Kola Superdeep Borehole may have reached their limit, but they still represent amazing feats of engineering.
To push further, we would need to find ways to grind away at the material that was squeezed by the overhead rock.
Digging tools need to be able to grind rock at temperatures over 180 degrees Celsius. It would take some clever thinking to turn the drill bits over such a long distance.
There is a possibility to drill less and burn more.
Quaise's solution is to use millimeter long waves of radiation that cause atoms to melt together.
gyrotrons can shake electrons at high speed inside powerful magnetic fields to efficiently produce continuous beams of radiation.
Quaise expects to be able to blaze its way through the toughest, hottest rock in a matter of months by hooking a megawatt-power gyrotron up to the latest in cutting tools.
At these depths, the heat of the surrounding rock can hit temperatures of around 500 degrees Celsius, enough to transform any liquid water pumped down there into a vapor-like supercritical state that is perfect for generating electricity.
Quaise expects to have field-deployable devices within the next two years. It could have a working system by the year 2026.
The company hopes to take over old coal-fired power stations and turn them into steam powered facilities.
We are bound to have a lot of questions on how and whether it will ever succeed. A bunch of them have been listed for Quaise's CEO and co-founder, Carlos Araque, to answer.
Around 17 percent of the world's population could be supplied with 17 percent of the world's energy from a geothermal source. Right now, close to 40 nations could be dependent on geothermal energy.
Less than half of the world's electricity is provided by the heat beneath our feet. To remain on track for net zero emissions by the year 2050, the growth of geothermal energy should be 13 percent a year. Its expansion is a fraction of what it could be.
Even if we don't find a way to expand its reach, there is a lot of room to grow. It's not clear whether Quaise will help reignite interest in this little-known company.
The time to cut emissions and cap global warming is rapidly decreasing. We are hitting rock bottom, so maybe it is time for us to dig a little deeper.
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