Quaise Energy Targets One-Kilometer Depth in 2026 as Millimeter Wave Drilling Rewrites the Geothermal Playbook
MIT spinout Quaise Energy plans to extend its record-setting millimeter wave drilling from 118 meters to one kilometer this year, advancing a technology that could unlock superhot geothermal energy virtually anywhere on Earth.
Overview
Quaise Energy, the MIT spinout that drilled a record-breaking 118 meters through solid granite using millimeter wave energy in July 2025, is now preparing to push that depth past one kilometer in 2026. The company is also targeting its first commercial flow test and aims to put superhot geothermal energy on the electrical grid for the first time, according to a year-end update from the company. If the milestones hold, the technology could open a path to geothermal power production in regions far beyond the volcanic hotspots where conventional geothermal plants operate today.
The effort represents a different approach from the enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) already moving toward commercialization, which adapt horizontal drilling techniques from the oil and gas industry. Quaise instead replaces the mechanical drill bit entirely, using concentrated electromagnetic energy to vaporize rock at depths and temperatures that defeat conventional hardware.
What We Know
Quaise’s system uses a gyrotron, a device originally developed for nuclear fusion research, to generate millimeter waves that ablate rock into ash. The approach eliminates the need for downhole mechanical components and can penetrate hard crystalline formations such as granite and basalt that stall traditional drill bits.
During a public demonstration at a granite quarry in Marble Falls, Texas, in September 2025, the company drilled at rates of up to five meters per hour, according to MIT Energy Initiative. For context, commercial drilling through granite typically averages roughly 0.1 meters per hour. The demonstration was attended by 56 invited observers who watched live drilling data and video from inside the borehole, as reported by EurekAlert.
The company’s progression has been rapid. In fall 2024, the team drilled a four-foot granite core in its Houston laboratory. By winter 2024, it had extended to ten feet outdoors. A May 2025 test on a full-scale Nabors Industries oil rig reached 40 feet, and by July 2025 the company had drilled 118 meters into a Texas granite outcrop, according to EurekAlert. CEO Carlos Araque described the progression as moving “from lab to over 100 meters in the ground in only half a year.”
The current system operates with a 100-kilowatt gyrotron. Quaise expects to acquire a one-megawatt unit, which would provide a tenfold increase in power for the drilling system, as reported by EurekAlert.
Commercial Ambitions
Quaise’s commercial strategy centers on Project Obsidian, a planned 50-megawatt superhot geothermal facility in central Oregon near the Newberry Volcano. The project is designed to scale to 250 megawatts as additional wells come online. The company is seeking $200 million in combined Series B funding and grants to support development, and has signed a power purchase agreement for the initial 50-megawatt phase.
The target resource sits two to twelve miles underground, where supercritical water carries five to ten times more energy than the fluids tapped by conventional geothermal wells, according to EurekAlert. If the technology proves out at commercial scale, Quaise argues it could enable geothermal power production in locations where no viable geothermal resource has previously been identified.
Araque has described the company’s approach as “the first drilling innovation in 100 years,” according to MIT Energy Initiative.
What We Don’t Know
Several critical questions remain unanswered. The current borehole diameter is four inches, well below the 8.5-inch production target. Whether the technology can maintain its drilling speed and hole quality at larger diameters and depths approaching one kilometer has not been publicly demonstrated.
The jump from 118 meters to one kilometer represents roughly an eightfold increase in depth, and the geological and thermal conditions at that depth will differ substantially from shallow granite quarry tests. The company has not disclosed detailed cost-per-meter figures from its field campaigns, making it difficult to assess economic viability relative to conventional drilling or competing EGS approaches.
Project Obsidian’s 2030 target for commercial operation also depends on securing the full $200 million in financing, and Quaise has not announced a completed Series B round.
Analysis
The geothermal sector is seeing a surge of investment and technological experimentation. As previously reported, Fervo Energy recently signed the largest organic Rankine cycle turbine supply deal in geothermal history, signaling that EGS projects using adapted oil-field drilling techniques are moving toward industrial scale. Quaise’s millimeter wave approach occupies a different technological niche, targeting deeper and hotter formations that are inaccessible to mechanical drills.
The two approaches are not necessarily in competition. Fervo’s EGS methods work in sedimentary and moderately hard formations at depths of a few kilometers, while Quaise’s technology is specifically designed for the crystalline basement rock that underlies most of the Earth’s surface. If both prove commercially viable, they would expand the geography of geothermal energy in complementary ways.
The 2026 milestones will be telling. Reaching one kilometer would validate the technology at a depth that begins to approach commercial relevance, and a successful flow test would demonstrate that the drilled boreholes can actually deliver usable heat. Until those results arrive, Quaise’s promise remains impressive but unproven at the scale required for grid-level power generation.