What's Next with Philip Meissner The Geothermal Bottleneck: Who Controls the Future of Energy?
Feb 24, 2026
Max Werner, deep‑tech founder of Hades Mining who builds laser drills for geothermal and critical minerals. He explains the 10 km barrier to unlocking coal-like geothermal power. He breaks down the $500M drilling cost problem and why drilling speed matters. He describes a fiber‑laser drilling approach that could enable scalable, precise geothermal energy and surgical mining, shifting geopolitics and energy access.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Drilling Speed Determines Project Economics
- Drilling time (rate of penetration) dominates project costs.
- Slower penetration increases crew, lease, and infrastructure costs linearly, making speed the primary lever for economics.
Laser Ablation Replaces Mechanical Cutting
- Hades uses a fiber laser to ablate rock rather than mechanically carve it.
- Laser drilling avoids bit wear and deflection, creating holes by melting/disintegrating rock ahead of the tool.
Mechanical Drills Suffer Deflection And Bit Wear
- Mechanical drills suffer deflection and extreme wear because they cut in direct contact using diamond bits.
- Bits wear every few hundred meters in hard rock, causing multi-day head changes and large delays.