Frequently Asked Questions
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
19 - If geothermal energy is so promising, why has SuperHot Geothermal only recently become a realistic opportunity?
Because the technology required to unlock it did not exist at commercial maturity until recently.
Geothermal energy itself is not new. Electricity has been generated from geothermal resources for more than a century. However, conventional geothermal development has historically been limited to locations where heat, permeability and naturally occurring geothermal fluids occur together.
EGS changes this equation by engineering access to heat in formations that do not naturally provide the required reservoir conditions. The modern EGS concept was first experimentally developed in the 1970s, but early projects demonstrated how difficult and expensive it was to drill, complete and operate wells under extreme underground conditions.
Three major technological developments have changed the equation:
1. Deep-drilling technology has advanced dramatically
Much of today's drilling technology was originally developed and optimised for the oil and gas industry, not geothermal energy. For decades, there was little commercial incentive to adapt these technologies for geothermal applications because conventional geothermal resources could only be economically exploited in selected locations.
Today, the geothermal industry can leverage decades of advances in drilling, directional drilling, well construction, downhole tools, modelling and drilling optimisation developed by the oil & gas sector.
The U.S. Department of Energy explicitly notes that geothermal drilling commonly uses oil & gas drilling equipment that has been modified for geothermal requirements. At the same time, geothermal drilling remains more demanding because of higher temperatures, harder rock and larger well-construction requirements.
2. Materials and high-temperature engineering have progressed substantially
Extreme temperature is one of the fundamental challenges.
The Kola Superdeep Borehole in Russia demonstrated this dramatically. Drilling reached 12.26 km in 1989, but subsequent drilling encountered temperatures of approximately 180°C at around 11.9 km, considerably higher than expected. The combination of temperature, rock behaviour and mechanical problems made further drilling impractical, and the project was ultimately abandoned.
Today, temperatures of 180°C are routinely encountered in geothermal and drilling operations and are not, by themselves, a fundamental barrier. Modern high-temperature materials, electronics, drilling tools, seals, cements, casing systems and specialised equipment have significantly expanded the temperature envelope in which wells can be drilled and operated.
The challenge has now shifted from “can we survive 180°C?” to “how do we economically and reliably operate at 400-500°C and beyond?”
That is precisely the technological frontier being addressed by today's SuperHot Geothermal programmes.
3. The geothermal industry itself has matured
Geothermal electricity has existed for more than 100 years, but for most of that period development focused on naturally occurring hydrothermal resources.
The transition toward EGS and SuperHot Geothermal is much more recent. Governments and research institutions have spent decades developing reservoir engineering, stimulation, well-integrity, drilling and heat-extraction technologies. The U.S. DOE's EGS programme, for example, traces back to Fenton Hill in the 1970s, while current programmes such as FORGE and ARPA-E SUPERHOT are now addressing commercial-scale deployment and extreme-temperature resources.
The IEA describes next-generation geothermal as a technology that is now beginning to translate into major private-sector investment, after decades in which most early R&D was government funded.
So why now?
Because several previously separate technology developments are converging at the same time.
Oil & gas → advanced drilling and well engineering
Materials science → extreme-temperature equipment
Geothermal R&D → EGS and reservoir engineering
Digital technology → better subsurface modelling and monitoring
Energy transition → unprecedented demand for 24/7 clean energy
The result is a fundamentally different opportunity from the one that existed 20, 30 or even 50 years ago.
SuperHot Geothermal is not suddenly becoming interesting. It is becoming technologically and commercially achievable.
And what about the famous question:
“We went to the Moon more than 50 years ago. Why is drilling only a few kilometres into the Earth so difficult?
Project Innerspace
Project InnerSpace is a non-profit organization dedicated to accelerating the global development of geothermal energy by combining climate philanthropy with the infrastructure and expertise of the oil and gas industry. The organization specifically focuses on promoting and supporting Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) projects worldwide to unlock clean power and heat everywhere. Their ultimate goal is to scale up drilling so that by 2050, geothermal energy can meet up to 77% of global electricity and over 100% of global heat demand.
Project InnerSpace is 100% funded by climate-conscious philanthropy, including Schmidt Futures (Google-founders), the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, Founder’s Pledge, the Greenbridge Family Foundation, the Bernard and Anne Spitzer Charitable Trust, and the Dreamery Foundation.
Because going to space and going deep into the Earth are fundamentally different engineering problems. And that is precisely the reason why the initiators of Project Innerspace gave their organization this name: discovering 'inner space'.
Space is largely a low-pressure, low-temperature environment once a spacecraft has left Earth's atmosphere. Deep underground, the opposite is true: temperature and pressure increase continuously, while the surrounding rock becomes harder, more stressed and mechanically unpredictable.
At extreme depths:
- temperatures can exceed 400-500°C;
- pressures become enormous;
- rock behaves differently under high temperature and stress;
- drilling tools and electronics must operate in an extremely hostile environment;
- the borehole itself must remain mechanically stable;
- casing, cement, seals and connections must maintain integrity;
- drilling becomes progressively slower and more expensive.
And unlike a spacecraft, a deep well must remain a functional engineered system inside the hostile environment for potentially decades.
The U.S. Department of Energy identifies high-temperature environments, hard/fractured rock, lower drilling rates and extensive well construction as major barriers to geothermal subsurface access.
The simplest way to explain it:
Going to the Moon means travelling through a hostile environment. Going 15-20 km into the Earth means continuously fighting one. In other words: The Moon is far away but relatively easy once you are there. The Earth is close but becomes extraordinarily hostile the deeper you go.
The successive developments over time:
- The oil and gas industry developed drilling into the earth.
- The geothermal sector developed the extraction of geothermal heat.
- Iceland demonstrated what 400-500°C can mean.
- Materials science made it possible to withstand much higher temperatures.
- The energy transition has created an enormous need for 24/7 clean energy