Seattle startup Endurance Energy is
ready to send a 100-kW geothermal energy generator, called Adelie, to an
undersea volcano off the Oregon Coast. The deployment is planned for next
month. The goal is to tap hydrothermal fluids with temperatures as high as 750
degrees Fahrenheit (399 degrees Celsius). This will be the company’s fifth
undersea deployment, but the first inside the Axial Seamount caldera. The company is currently
expanding into a 25,000-square-foot concrete facility which has ample space for
research and component manufacturing. The company’s CEO, Andrew Redd, a former
SpaceX engineer, noted:
“Everyone is incredibly multidisciplinary. The challenge
is incredibly multidisciplinary. That’s what makes it so fun and exciting,”
said Redd, watching his team at work. He pointed to the company’s thermal
fluids analyst, for example, who at that moment was assembling electronics
enclosures.
The company’s team includes
several former SpaceX employees, along with former employees of fusion startup
Helion Energy, and former Blue Origin employees.
As summarized below, the
system will tap into hydrothermal fluids but avoid areas with active
hydrothermal vents. It will also take advantage of the colder seawater for heat
exchange in order to cool the refrigerant back into a liquid form. They will
also observe the system’s performance and utilize subsea-durable switchboxes to
control parameters remotely.
There are some disadvantages
to undersea geothermal projects, including the need for power cables to carry
the power ashore, where costs increase with distance. There are also the usual
issues with tapping hydrothermal systems, including high
pressure and corrosive conditions, mineral scaling inside devices, and the risk
of costly repairs to seafloor machinery.
According to Geekwire:
“Endurance has done four prototype deployments, reaching
a depth of about 2 miles and temperatures up to 726 degrees Fahrenheit. The
company has previously visited the Pacific Northwest’s Juan de Fuca Ridge, the
Mariana Trough, the East Pacific Rise off Mexico, and the Kingdom of Tonga in
the South Pacific Ocean.”
Thus far, the company has
managed to raise $63 million in investments. The company’s next project,
scheduled for next year, is a megawatt-scale commercial pilot, offshore the
island of Tonga. The company’s website points out the potential for subsea geothermal
systems for powering island countries that often rely on expensive, polluting,
and carbon-emitting oil, diesel, and LNG imports for power. Reading about the
company made me wonder how they are drilling the wells and how deep they are. I
did not find drilling depths, but since they are near active vent areas, they
are probably not very deep. I found the following quote captioning a video on
the company’s LinkedIn page. I was not able to copy the video, but the link for
the company’s LinkedIn page is below. The video shows a ship, the Ocean
Guardian, used for deployments.
“Meet Ocean Guardian, our ride to the Juan de Fuca
Ridge. At 260 feet with dynamic positioning and 60 berths, the vessel will host
and deploy our drill, ROV, and generator to the seafloor while serving as home
for three weeks at sea. Mission prep is underway.”
(27) Endurance Energy: Posts | LinkedIn
Apparently, for a deployment
earlier this year off the west coast of Tonga, the team successfully deployed a
wellhead prototype directly on a hydrothermal vent which naturally vents hot water into
the sea.
“Off the west coast of Tonga, in the Lau Basin,
hydrothermal fluid exits the seafloor via hydrothermal vents at over
300ºC/572ºF. Our first wellhead prototype has mated to one of these vents and
is actively pumping hydrothermal fluid. All of the power needed to pump, sense,
and communicate is generated onboard via solid state thermo-electric
generators. In the future these systems will be used to cap drilled wells,
sensing temperature and flow rate while amplifying and stabilizing the
hydrothermal fluid being sent to our full-scale multi-MW generators.”
Of the three pics below that
went with this LinkedIn post, the first one seems to be the drilling assembly,
the second the deployment of the wellhead unit, and the third might be an
active hydrothermal vent.
Interestingly, the company
has also tested its equipment on-site with scuba divers in shallower waters,
which also match the buoyancy and handling requirements of the deeper water
that most deployments will be in. The company sponsors advanced scuba
certification for all employees.
References:
Go
inside Endurance Energy, the Seattle startup tapping underwater volcanoes for
geothermal power. Lisa Stiffler. Geekwire. August 17, 2026. Go inside Endurance Energy, the
Seattle startup tapping underwater volcanoes for geothermal power
Subsea
geothermal for energy abundance. Endurance Energy. Endurance Energy
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