Quaise Energy Raises $134 Million to Advance First Commercial Superhot Geothermal Plant

Overview

• Quaise said it closed an initial $134 million tranche of a Series B led by Prelude Ventures with strategic investments from JERA and Idemitsu, bringing total funding to about $230 million and leaving room for further equity and debt capital.
• Proceeds are earmarked for Project Obsidian, which the company is building on federal geothermal leases in Oregon’s Deschutes National Forest and which Quaise says has gigawatt‑scale potential and aims to deliver first electricity by 2030.
• Quaise commercializes a millimeter‑wave, non‑contact drilling system developed at MIT that vaporizes rock to reach higher temperatures and depths than conventional drill bits, with a goal of penetrating beyond 5 km to access 300–500°C rock.
• The company points to field milestones as technical validation, saying its system drilled more than 100 meters through granite in 2025 and is approaching roughly one kilometer at a Central Texas test site, and it is now raising project‑level equity, debt and off‑take partners.
• If the technology scales, it could let geothermal provide steady, low‑carbon power in places now unreachable by standard drilling and help stabilize regional grids such as the Pacific Northwest by producing higher energy from fewer wells.