First Of A Kind Geothermal: How Quaise Energy Is Using Millimeter Wave Technology to Unlock Geothermal Power Anywhere on Earth

James Benetatos, Head of Business Development at Quaise Energy, joined Alex Cameron to talk about Project Obsidian, the company's first-of-a-kind superhot geothermal project at Newberry Volcano in Oregon. Quaise has developed a gyrotron-powered drilling platform that vaporises boreholes through rock using high-power millimeter waves, reaching depths and temperatures that conventional drilling cannot.

Where traditional methods top out, Quaise's project will be pushing past five kilometres and beyond 300 degrees Celsius, a combination that has never been achieved before. The goal is to access superhot geothermal heat and to do that anywhere in the world (not just in volcanic zones).

Fresh off a $180M Series B, with permitting secured in under five months and a drilling rig already on site, Quaise is targeting first power to grid by 2030, with 200-250MW to follow shortly after. Listen in to hear about their decision to be the project developer rather than a simply a drilling tech/services company, how they are sequencing conventional and millimeter wave drilling to de-risk the subsurface, and what it will actually take to replicate the shale revolution in geothermal.

Key points:

1. Why the gyrotron-powered drilling platform that vaporises rock is the key to unlocking geothermal energy anywhere on earth, not just near volcanoes.
2. Why owning the whole project, not just the drilling technology, is the only viable commercial path when you're creating a market that doesn't yet exist.
3. How decades of abandoned exploration at Newberry Volcano became a strategic asset rather than a warning sign.
4. How Quaise plans to drive costs down at scale.
5. What it actually takes to permit and fund a first-of-a-kind energy project in the current U.S. regulatory environment, and why this one moved faster than almost anyone expected.
6. How the same subsurface logic that drove the shale revolution could be the blueprint for scaling geothermal from volcanic hotspots to the whole of North America within a decade.

Links:

· Connect with James Benetatos of Quaise Energy

· Follow Alex Cameron on LinkedIn and find how to get involved with the podcast or events and membership

· Find out more about Quaise Energy and its projects

· Want more like this? Join Alex and a network of energy buyers, investors & series B+ tech at Firm Power Connect in San Francisco (December 2026)

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