March 29, 2024
Ilustração da captação de energia através do magma da Terra

MIT scientists claim they have the switch of unlimited and cheap electricity

As difficult as it may be to understand, behind the kind of wars we live in is power and energy control. This is because it is rare, expensive and limited. At least the one we use often that heats our homes or allows businesses to operate. But … what if there was unlimited and cheap electricity?

An MIT company wants to turn thermal plants into countless green power plants by using Earth’s magma as a heat source anywhere on the globe.

Illustration of collecting energy through magma

Earth's magma can nourish humans for millions of years

that A branch of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology It claims to have unlimited power switch, 100% green, and virtually free. It is not fusion, nor fission, nor regeneration, but using terrestrial magma, which can fuel civilization for 20 million years using only 0.1% of its heat.

This energy is only used in countries like Iceland because in the rest of the world, geothermal energy is virtually out of reach. after.

According to Quale Energy, the name of a new company founded by engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, today there is technology for any country to access this infinite resource of energy.

As reported, the company's engineers claim that their new geared power drill will easily reach depths of up to 20 kilometers, a distance completely impossible using mechanical drills, as the former Soviet Union demonstrated after years of drilling near its Norwegian border.

Kola superdeep shaft, and deeper hole Already man-made. SG-3 reached 12,262 meters in 1989, making it the deepest well ever drilled and the deepest artificial point on Earth.

In the 1960s, the Soviet Union attempted to reach this depth of 20 kilometers in an experiment called the "Kola superdeep Shaft". However, operations were halted years later at 12,262 metres, when the low density and high viscosity of the rock combined with the excessive temperature made it impossible to continue this hole to hell.

Geothermal energy anywhere

The so-called inferno or magma on Earth burns at 5200°C around a solid ball of nickel-iron at the center of our planet, but you don't have to go there for unlimited energy.

Of course, if we weren't on top of a magma source near the surface - like in Iceland, and we see this daily, where 65% of the energy expended in 2016 was geothermal - we'd have to drill until we got to a depth of about 20 kilometers. However, we are talking about a task that is not easy. In fact, it is a very difficult task!

If we could truly reach this depth anywhere in the world, we would have an unlimited source of energy 24 hours a day at a very low cost.

Examples on the planet today tell us that geothermal energy will eliminate the need for fossil fuels in one fell swoop. All countries will be fully self-sufficient.

According to Quale, in a short period of time, this free energy source can cut electricity bills at very low rates. For example, in Iceland, the average bill for energy - including electricity, heating and hot water - is about 22 euros.

Now imagine what it would be like in Portugal, which has a very mild climate. In the end, every Portuguese will spend half of that monthly.

The environment will appreciate less pollution

The advantage will first be the direct cost to each of us, but indirect, and perhaps most importantly, costs or their environmental reduction. This is because access to an unlimited and constant supply of electricity would also allow humanity to continue moving forward for millions of years without generating carbon dioxide or generating hydrogen anywhere at negligible cost.

In addition, Quale points out that we will no longer rely on intermittent renewable energy and we can eliminate all the solar, hydrological, nuclear and wind plants that affect wildlife, restoring these spaces for nature.

Explanation of how magma turns into unlimited energy

This diagram above shows Quale's Ultra-Deep Hybrid Drilling Rig that combines typical rotary drilling and power directional drilling. gyrotron wavespressure with electromagnetically transparent argon gas.

How will the process work?

If the described process succeeds, it is somewhat ironic. That's because Quale originated at the MIT Center for Plasma Science and Nuclear Fusion, where Paul Woskov - one of the founders of Quale - created this gyrotron drilling system.

Roughly speaking, this vacuum tube-derived device uses a beam of electrons amplified in a hollow resonant cavity. Inside there is a magnetic field that accelerates these electrons to relativistic speeds, radically amplifying the microwave energy.

The result is that the beam of energy emerging from Woskov's pits is able to vaporize any rock imaginable.

Illustration of equipment for turning rock into magma

According to Carlos Arac — another MIT engineer who discovered Woskov's work in 2017 and co-founded Quale — the idea is to drill and build the infrastructure needed to get direct access to conventional thermal plants.

Once the conversion infrastructure is built, the plants will convert from fossil fuels to this geothermal energy. To do this, they will first use conventional drilling systems to reach a depth of five kilometers, which is standard in the fossil fuel extraction industry. At this point, Quale switches to the geared power drill.

A 1 megawatt, 150 GHz grutron is used to heat plasma inside the 7-x stellar fusion experiment from Wedelstein, Germany.

The company is convinced of its success. One of its founders, geologist Matthew Hoody, says his model is perfectly workable. He says that nature has stable holes exceeding 20 kilometers: volcanoes. Iceland shows that energy independence at a high cost to the consumer is possible.

It remains to be seen if the drills and other Quale techniques will work.

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