Startup pulls net-positive power from an underwater volcano for the first time
Startup taps underwater volcano as energy source in "proof point" test
Endurance Energy ran a three-week test of its 3-ton Adélie power plant at the Axial Seamount, nearly a mile below the Pacific. The 100-kilowatt unit briefly produced more electricity than it consumed—about 8.7 seconds of net-positive output, peaking at 16.5 kilowatts—before a software glitch and a failed cable ended the run. The Seattle startup aims to supply subsea geothermal power to Pacific island nations, starting with a 2-megawatt deployment for Tonga in 2027.
Net-positive is the threshold that matters: the plant made more power than it took to run itself on the seafloor, which no one had done before.
- koolba
I’ve been expecting Oracle to do this. It’d solve their current data center power problem. And it gives a place for Ellison to have video calls with the UN.
- boringg
Man how high is that equivalent LCOE. No way does capex and opex on this work out. Geothermal underwater with a heat source thats potentially changing a lot.
Seems like a headline grabber and not a real solution but hopefully some useful tech comes out of it.
- snohobro
I have quite a few friends that work at Endurance. I’m excited by their development and to see them making news. Their concept is a cool one. Interested to see how they balance potentially disrupting those ecosystems with putting electricity on the grid.
- Aboutplants
“The company is also developing a larger 2-megawatt commercial generator for its first planned commercial deployment with the Kingdom of Tonga in 2027. The Polynesian island nation in the South Pacific Ocean runs its power grid primarily on imported diesel fuel, which has significantly increased in price since the United States and Israel launched their war with Iran.
“The 2 MW commercial generators will be about the size of a shipping container, and we are deploying up to six of these generators [to] offshore Tonga,” Redd told Ars. “The physical footprint of this project will be relatively small.”
Nice potential application! I’m not sure of the scaling economics but I certainly do love to see all forms of power generation explored
- mrlonglong
For goodness sakes don't puncture the crust. We'd be back to the Hadean era.