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Quaise demos maser drill bit to go deeper than humans have ever gone
On May 21, 2025, New Atlas attended a demonstration at the Nabors facility in Houston, Texas, where Quaise Energy showcased a literal groundbreaking demo of its millimeter wave drilling technology, looking to prove its dream of revolutionizing geothermal energy extraction.
During the full-scale demo I attended, Quaise fed 50,000 volts DC to a 100-kW gyrotron (a fancy, new, and 60% efficient one) connected to a Nabors F rig with a custom top drive and other bits, melting a hole into a granite/basalt mix of rock like butter on a hot day. The "BHA" (bottom hole assembly) launcher – basically the death-ray end of the drill – beams out a Gaussian (cone-shaped) blast of melty millimeter-wave energy from about eight inches (20 cm) away. Quaise plans to pair this tech with conventional drilling rigs (that will tackle the easy top layer), then fire up the beam to melt its way to the geothermal jackpot of heat energy.
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