‘Special Report’ host Bret Baier reports on efforts to promote geothermal energy production and how artificial intelligence is helping companies realize its full potential.
Geothermal energy has been around since Earth’s creation and exists almost everywhere, but harnessing its full potential has proven difficult because viable resources are often difficult to find.
“The US has a lot of it, and most of it in the US is still untapped. It’s a huge resource waiting for us to go after it,” said Joel Edwards, co-founder of Zanskar.
Geothermal energy is generated by the formation of the Earth and its ongoing radioactive decay. It is stored below the surface and made accessible by drilling thousands of meters underground.
From hidden heat deep underground to smarter drilling above, AI is fueling the next wave of clean energy, making geothermal a major player in America’s energy future. (Zanskar)
“The great thing about geothermal energy is that there’s heat underground everywhere. The deeper you go into the Earth, the hotter it gets. But there are some parts, certain regions, that just have hotter rock,” Edwards said.
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Geothermal energy finds its way to the Earth’s surface through volcanoes, hot springs and geysers. It has been difficult to detect above ground until now.
“We’ve made more discoveries in three years than the industry has made in 30 years,” Edwards said.
Zanskar, a geothermal company, is making the search for hot springs more accurate. The company built artificial intelligence models capable of detecting geothermal resources and targeting them with deeper drilling.
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“We found dozens of sites, and they were overlooked or they were just in areas where no one had ever looked,” Edwards said. “Once we find these systems, we have much more success drilling them because those models are better at simulating all possible orientations of a geothermal system.”
Historically, geothermal production carried the risk of drilling inefficient wells. There are safety risks in geothermal production environmental problems related to air and water pollution. The uncertainty has led to permitting delays and operational challenges.
“What happens is you drill moderately productive wells, marginal wells, or you drill unproductive wells. All of these failures add up to the total cost of a project, and that drives up the cost of the project,” Edwards said.
As AI helps locate geothermal hotspots, companies like Zanskar are unlocking energy that has always been there. (Zanskar)
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The best geothermal resources in the US are in the West, where much of the land is owned by the federal government. The Department of the Interior has implemented emergency permitting procedures to expedite the review of geothermal projects as part of President Trump’s energy agenda.
“It normally takes three to six, three to seven years for these projects to be approved. Fortunately, in recent years there has been an urgency to reduce red tape,” Edwards said. “And that is already providing a material benefit to some of these projects at an earlier stage.”
Artificial intelligence can also help streamline the regulatory process.
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“What we need to do is work with our federal, state and local partners to make the solutions you’re talking about a reality. We can’t see this technology as it’s happening to us. We have to work together and use it just like everyone else,” said Calvin Butler, CEO of Exelon. “AI should help us all become more efficient at what we do and get better at it.”
The geothermal industry has similar challenges and risks as oil and gas. The Society of Petroleum Engineers began promoting the use of AI back in 2009. It has helped improve exploration, drilling and development. Studies show that some of the same techniques can help geothermal production.
“It feels a little bit like oil and gas might have been over a hundred years ago,” Edwards said. “We didn’t know how much of it was out there, etc. That’s what geothermal feels like.
“It feels like we’ve barely done any research on it. We have a little bit of it now. We understand it a little bit. But now the market is there, and the market is saying, ‘We want this stuff.'”
Geothermal energy is everywhere, but finding it hasn’t been easy. Now artificial intelligence is changing the game and accelerating discoveries that once took decades. (Zanskar)
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As artificial intelligence helps accelerate new resources, there are still concerns about its immediate effect on the power grid.
“It’s a challenge, but it’s a huge opportunity. And that’s what we’re most excited about, the opportunity to be part of this journey, this next wave of the energy transformation, because we can’t just look at it as a challenge and say, ‘We don’t know what to do,'” Butler said.
“We’re working with our technology partners and saying, ‘What can we do to make this a win-win for everyone?’”
