Why geothermal stalled then resurged

Geothermal energy has long been overlooked, dismissed as a niche despite its ability to deliver constant, carbon-free baseload power. As data centre demand surges and grids strain under electrification, geothermal is re-emerging as a critical piece of the clean energy puzzle. Unlike intermittent renewables, it offers steady generation; if you can find it.

In this episode of Hardware to Save a Planet, host Dylan Garrett speaks with Joel Edwards, CTO and cofounder of Zanskar, about how AI and geoscience are transforming geothermal discovery.

Joel explains why the industry stalled after oil majors exited in the 1980s, and how Zanskar is solving the “needle in a haystack” problem of locating hidden reservoirs. By combining machine learning, proprietary field data, and physics-constrained simulations, the team has reduced exploration costs by up to 90% and drilled one of the most productive pumped geothermal wells in the United States at Lightning Dock. The conversation explores permitting bottlenecks, grid interconnection delays, and Zanskar’s ten-year vision to scale to one gigawatt of reliable and clean power.

Hardware to Save a Planet is brought to you by Synapse. We are a global product development and engineering firm that partners with visionary companies to design, develop, and realize breakthrough hardware and AI-powered innovations that advance climate technologies.

Joel Edwards is the CTO and cofounder of Zanskar, a geothermal technology company leveraging custom-built AI and geoscience to discover overlooked geothermal resources that can be developed using existing drilling technology. With a PhD in earth sciences from UC Santa Cruz, Edwards brings deep technical expertise to the challenge of accelerating clean baseload power deployment. 

Hardware to Save a Planet is brought to you by Synapse. We are a global product development and engineering firm that partners with visionary companies to design, develop, and realize breakthrough hardware and AI-powered innovations that advance climate technologies.

To learn more about Synapse and potential business partnerships we offer outside of the podcast, please visit: https://www.synapse.com/contact/ to get in touch!

 

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Previous guests include: Peter Reinhardt of Charm Industrial, Carlos Araque of Quaise, Noah McQueen of Heirloom, Areeb Malik of Glacier, Jeff Satwicz of Bigbelly, Abe Schneider of Natel Energy, Insiya Jafferjee of Shellworks, Paul Gross of Remora, Erika Boeing of Accelerate Wind and Daniel Betts of Blue Frontier.

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