Scientists worldwide are constantly looking for new ways to develop clean energy technology and harness the world around us into a relatively cheap, seemingly infinite power supply. But what if the Earth itself — perhaps the ultimate energy source, second to the sun — could be used as a battery?
This is the basic premise of geothermal engineering, and it is the premise and hypothesis that a new startup, Dig Energy, is attempting to realize. Recently, the company announced that it had secured $5 million in venture funding to pilot its own patented geothermal drilling technology.
“Dig holds potential to finally make geothermal heat pumps — by far the most efficient way to heat and cool buildings — cost-effective to install,” said Johanna Wolfson, co-founder and general partner at Azolla Ventures and an investor in Dig, per Interesting Engineering.
Dig’s new invention is a purpose-built geothermal drill that swaps traditional carbide bits for high-pressure fluid drilling. By itself, this substitution is expected to drop costs on rigs by up to 80% compared to the current industry standard, and if it works as well as Dig hopes, it could make geothermal heat pumps much more accessible to homes and businesses alike.