Posted by Jimmc414 5 days ago
I wonder what their transmission voltage is. They're talking about a 1km deep shaft. That feels like a lot of conductor to get to 1MW, unless you can send at 20kV or something high. Reciprocally though if you're not transmitting major force through a drillshaft, perhaps it still is a major net win for cost.
Figuring out heat management down there feels like it would likewise be pretty tricky! Again I wonder though how that would compare to the heat generated from drilling and how much management/circulation that requires.
They generate the RF on the surface and transmit it down the borehole thru a waveguide, so it's only limited by arching in the waveguide. Since we only need power transfer and don't care about multimode propagation, the waveguide diameter isn't limited, and probably on the larger side to reduce copper losses. And the heat management is provided by blowing argon which also carries abalated rock particulate to the surface.
See the schematics here: the schematic here: https://www.thinkgeoenergy.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/mi...
Nope that's a 0.1kilometerstone.
