Welcome to Project Obsidian.
Join our Project Manager Paolo Rossi in Central Oregon for a behind-the-scenes look at our progress on the world's first superhot geothermal power plant.
Superhot geothermal energy reaches rock at temperatures of 300–500°C, generating up to 10x more energy per well than conventional geothermal. Higher power densities mean better economics for geothermal.
Obsidian is our blueprint for delivering reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy worldwide.
Video Transcript
Hey there, I'm Paolo with Quaise Energy. Starting today, I'll be your host in a series of videos covering an exciting project we're developing here in Central Oregon. The project is called Obsidian. And Obsidian is a superhot geothermal power plant on the south side of the Newberry caldera. In this series of videos, we'll cover news, updates, and milestones and give you a behind-the-scenes look as we stand up our drill rig, test our wells, and construct this power plant. Hop in and let's go for a ride.
For those of you that don't know about geothermal energy, it's been around for over a hundred years. Historically, geothermal energy projects have been developed where there's pockets of hot water or steam, and they turn that into electricity, then tie it to the grid. This project is different, in that we are going after what we call superhot rock. Superhot rock is somewhere between 300 to 500 degrees Celsius. And by accessing temperatures that are that hot, we'll be able to generate about 10 times more energy per well than conventional geothermal. And when we get to that level of energy density, and energy economics, then we can start to compete with fossil fuels on the cost of energy delivered to the end customer. Geothermal can have a huge role in the world energy market. So this is really a new frontier for geothermal and for renewables as a whole, and it's really cool that it's happening right here in Central Oregon.
One of the things that makes Central Oregon really unique is our volcanic history, and that's part of the reason why we chose this site. It's got what we call a high thermal gradient, which means we don't have to drill that deep into the Earth to get to hotter temperatures. If we were in other parts of the country, you'd have to go a lot deeper. But in here, in Central Oregon, south of the Newberry Volcano, we're gonna go about three miles deep, and we will access those superhot temperatures. Okay, we're about to enter the project site. And this drill pad has not been seen by the outside world, so you are getting a first look at where Project Obsidian is gonna be built.
Okay, we've arrived. Welcome to Project Obsidian. Over the last several months, we flattened and compacted the site, located our first well, and built these two sumps, all to be ready for a drill rig to show up next month. That rig is gonna drill the first well that confirms superhot temperatures here at Project Obsidian. We'll cover more of that in the next video. So for now, let's have a look.
It may not look like much, but under our feet are those superhot temperatures that we're after. In our next videos, you'll get to meet the engineers, geologists, and constructors that helped pick this location and that are making Project Obsidian a reality. From all of us here at Quaise Energy, I'm Paolo Rossi. Stay tuned.