Zanskar, a Utah-based geothermal developer, is using artificial intelligence to assess overlooked land for pockets of geothermal energy.
Geothermal energy is collected by drilling holes into the ground. The holes create wells, into which water is pumped and boiled by heat rising from the earth's core.
When the water is pumped back up to the surface, it creates steam. That steam turns a turbine, which powers a generator that creates electricity.
According to Tech Brew, Zanskar's co-founder and CTO, Joel Edwards, stated that the company's AI model has been incredibly successful. It has found more conventional geothermal pockets in three years than the industry has found in the last three decades, and everywhere it's looked is a place that was thought to be completely devoid of energy.
In 2024, the model became more accurate at finding these pockets than humans. It learned to identify geothermal characteristics, among other things, to determine which areas will provide the most energy.
The company is also using what's already available instead of going to completely new, untapped sites.
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"Conventional [geothermal] should not be overlooked," Zanskar co-founder and CEO Carl Hoiland told Tech Brew. "There's enough there to meet all of the future growth in energy demand."
Zanskar's breakthrough means geothermal energy could be another more readily available form of clean energy, such as solar and wind.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, other geothermal benefits include energy availability regardless of weather and domestic energy production. It's renewable and uses less land per gigawatt-hour than coal and even solar and wind.
The DOE announced in 2022 that it wanted to lower geothermal energy prices by 90% to $45 a megawatt hour by 2035. While we're a decade away currently, McKinsey & Company estimated that the U.S. is on track to meet that goal.
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For now, Zanskar is doing a great job of finding more places to collect geothermal energy. For a company taking the conventional route, it sure is shining in many unorthodox ways.
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