How AI Could Unlock A Ton Of This Promising Renewable Energy
Summary
But Zanskars models analyze enormous amounts of data to find the best spots to dig for power, and the company hopes its models will significantly reduce the capital needed to build new plants.Weve now discovered more of these hidden geothermal resources in just the past year and a half than the entire industry combined had done over the prior decade, CEO Carl Hoiland told Forbes.Today, Zanskar announced it has raised $30 million in a series B funding round led by Obvious Ventures, which values it at $115 million. According to Roland Horne, director of the Precourt Institute for Energy at Stanford, drilling counts for about half of the cost of most projects.Compounding the expense is that in the process of exploration, drillers dont always hit the right spot. It uses data from a number of sources satellites, geological surveys, even information gathered from waves that move through the ground after an earthquake and uses a variety of machine learning models to predict the best spots to dig. The company validates its models through its own exploratory drilling, the data from which is fed back in to better refine the AI process.What sets us apart from other groups is that we have a large field program thats out there every day of the year, rain or shine, across the West, he added. For example, Fervo Energy, which has developed improved drilling techniques for geothermal power, raised a $244 million round in February of this year.With the new capital, Zanskar plans to expand its team with the goal of bringing its first facility online in about four years, if all goes well.