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Inside the race to tap into ‘superhot’ geothermal energy

EuroNews · · 850 words · By Craig Saueurs
Environmental Risk Technological Innovation Energy Transition
open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.euronews.com/2026/05/11/the-race-to-unlock-superhot-geothermal-energ…

psychologyDetected Techniques

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Loaded Language 80% confidence
Using words with strong emotional connotations to influence an audience.
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Exaggeration / Hyperbole 70% confidence
Overstating facts or claims to create a stronger emotional response.

fact_checkFact-Check Results

18 claims extracted and verified against multiple sources including cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia.

schedule Pending 8
info Single Source 3
check_circle Corroborated 3
verified Verified By Reference 3
help Insufficient Evidence 1
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“Harnessing the power of just one per cent of superhot rocks could provide more than eight times the current global electricity generation.”
SINGLE SOURCE
The evidence provided mentions that 1% of superhot rock resources in Europe could provide 2.1 terawatts, but it does not explicitly confirm the specific global figure of 'eight times current global electricity generation'.
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web search NEUTRAL — Why do we care? Because Superhot rock (SHR) geothermal harnesses heat from rock at temperatures above 400°C to generate five to ten times more energy per well than today’s conventional geothermal syst…
https://www.catf.us/2025/12/road-map-de-risking-scaling-next…
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web search NEUTRAL — Similarly, 1% of superhot rock resources in Europe could provide 2.1 terawatts of energy capacity, meeting Berlin's electricity consumption nearly 1400 times over.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/geothermal-energy-harnessing-…
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web search NEUTRAL — Just one percent of superhot rock resources in Europe have the potential to provide 2.1 terawatts of energy capacity—or enough to meet Berlin's electricity consumption in 2022, nearly 1400 times over.
https://www.azocleantech.com/news.aspx?newsID=34729
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“the International Energy Agency (IEA) highlighted superhot geothermal in its State of Energy Innovation report”
CORROBORATED
Multiple web search results confirm that the IEA's 'State of Energy Innovation 2026' report features superhot rock geothermal energy.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The International Energy Agency (IEA) is a Paris-based autonomous intergovernmental organization, established in 1974, that provides policy recommendations, analysis and data on the global energy sect…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Energy_Agency
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Renewable energy (also called green energy) is energy made from renewable natural resources that are replenished on a human timescale. The most widely used renewable energy types are solar energy, win…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Energy is sustainable if it "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Definitions of sustainable energy usually look at its effec…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_energy
+ 3 more evidence sources
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“startup Quaise Energy says it plans to build what it calls the world’s first superhot geothermal power plant by 2030”
CORROBORATED
Multiple independent web sources confirm Quaise Energy's plan to build the world's first superhot geothermal power plant (Project Obsidian) in Oregon by 2030.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Geothermal energy is thermal energy extracted from the Earth's crust. It combines energy from the formation of the planet and from radioactive decay. Geothermal energy has been exploited as a source o…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_energy
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — How I Built This is an American podcast about "innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built" produced by NPR.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_I_Built_This
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Quaise, Inc is developing a millimeter-wave drilling system for converting existing power stations to use superdeep geothermal energy. The system would repurpose existing gyrotron technology to drill …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaise
+ 3 more evidence sources
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“In Iceland, geothermal water has been used to heat homes for nearly a century.”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
While the evidence confirms Iceland's geography and general nature, the provided search results do not specifically mention the 'nearly a century' timeframe for heating homes with geothermal water.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Iceland is a Nordic island country between the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic Ocean, located on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between Europe and North America. It is culturally and politically linked wi…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceland
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Icelandic Sheepdog (Icelandic: Íslenskur fjárhundur, pronounced [ˈistlɛnskʏr ˈfjaurˌhʏntʏr̥]), is an Icelandic breed of dog of Nordic Spitz type. It derives from dogs brought to Iceland by Viking …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_Sheepdog
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The króna (Icelandic pronunciation: [ˈkʰrouːna]) or krona (sometimes called Icelandic crown; sign: kr; code: ISK) is the currency of Iceland. One króna was formerly divided into 100 aurar (singular "e…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_króna
+ 3 more evidence sources
verified
“Today, around 30 per cent of the country’s electricity comes from geothermal sources.”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
The provided evidence for this claim consists of dictionary definitions for 'approximately' and general info about Iceland's economy, but no specific percentage of electricity from geothermal sources is mentioned.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Iceland has a highly developed social market economy. In 2011, the gross domestic product (GDP) was US$12 billion. By 2018, it had increased to a nominal GDP of US$27 billion, and by 2025, it reached …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Iceland
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Iceland is a Nordic island country between the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic Ocean, located on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between Europe and North America. It is culturally and politically linked wi…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceland
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Reykjavík is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located on the southern shore of the Faxaflói bay in southwest Iceland and has a latitude of 64°08′ N, making it the world's northernmost ca…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reykjavík
+ 3 more evidence sources
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“According to the IEA, traditional geothermal plants rely on naturally occurring underground reservoirs of hot water or steam, which are typically concentrated in volcanically active regions or along the boundaries of the Earth’s tectonic plate.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple sources (ScienceInsights, Fiveable, and a PPT) confirm that traditional geothermal plants rely on naturally occurring reservoirs of hot water or steam, typically in volcanically active regions.
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web search NEUTRAL — Traditional geothermal plants depend on naturally occurring reservoirs of hot water or steam, which limits them to volcanically active regions. Enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) aim to change that.
https://scienceinsights.org/what-is-a-geothermal-power-plant…
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web search NEUTRAL — Geothermal plants bring hot water/steam from hydrothermal reservoirs up production wells. That steam is piped onto a turbine’s blades (in dry-steam or flash-steam plants) or used to vaporize a seconda…
https://fiveable.me/ap-enviro/unit-6/geothermal-energy/study…
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web search NEUTRAL — Geothermal power plants tap into underground reservoirs of hot water or steam through wells to power turbines that generate electricity. Direct uses include heating buildings and greenhouses.
https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/geothermal-energy-14994…
verified
“The technology targets rocks that are hotter than 300°C, where water reaches a supercritical state”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
The search results for this claim returned information about a video game called 'Superhot' and chili peppers, rather than geothermal technology. No evidence provided supports the 300°C supercritical state claim.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Among growers in the US, the UK, and Australia, there has been a competition since the 1990s to grow the hottest chili pepper. Chili pepper species and cultivars registering over 1,000,000 Scoville He…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hottest_chili_pepper
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Superhot is an independent first-person shooter video game developed and published by Superhot Team. Though the game follows traditional first-person shooter gameplay mechanics, with the player attemp…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superhot
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Superhot: Mind Control Delete is a 2020 independent first-person shooter video game developed and published by Superhot Team. It is a sequel to 2016's Superhot and expands on the game mechanics by uti…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superhot:_Mind_Control_Delete
+ 3 more evidence sources
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“According to the US-based non-profit Clean Air Task Force, tapping just one per cent of these resources could provide more than eight times the current electricity generation globally.”
SINGLE SOURCE
The Clean Air Task Force (CATF) is mentioned as a source for superhot rock geothermal advantages, but the specific 'eight times' statistic is not explicitly corroborated in the provided snippets.
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web search NEUTRAL — Geothermal power (generation of electricity from geothermal energy), has been used since the 20th century. Geothermal power plants produce power at a constant rate, without regard to weather condition…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_energy
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web search NEUTRAL — Most of the Earth’s geothermal heat––known as “deep geothermal”––lies roughly two to twelve miles underground. Current methods can only extract energy near the Earth’s surface, or down to about two mi…
https://c3newsmag.com/superhot-geothermal-energy-quaise-proj…
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web search NEUTRAL — Superhot rock geothermal could have a few distinct advantages over other energy sources. It is projected to be affordable, requiring little area to produce large amounts of energy (high energy density…
https://www.catf.us/superhot-rock/
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“Quaise Energy plans to use conventional drilling for the upper sections of its Oregon wells before switching to millimetre wave technology developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was provided for this claim in the search results.
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“Quaise says this system would offer 50 megawatts of always-on, renewable power”
SINGLE SOURCE
One web search result mentions an 'initial 50-megawatt facility planned in Oregon' by Quaise Energy, but the specific phrasing 'always-on, renewable power' is not explicitly corroborated across multiple sources.
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“the plummeting cost of battery storage is helping renewables provide around-the-clock electricity at prices that rival fossil fuels, according to a new report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).”
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“In Iceland, researchers recently secured €10 million in EU funding to develop similar projects.”
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“Last year, New Zealand also entered a cooperative agreement with Iceland to develop geothermal technology”
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“According to the IEA, advances in deep drilling could make it viable across larger parts of Europe, Asia and North America.”
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“No commercial superhot geothermal plant is operating yet”
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“In 2017, an earthquake measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale struck near a geothermal site in Pohang, South Korea”
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“It was believed to be caused by induced seismicity, after high-pressure fluid was injected into the ground at the site.”
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“According to the Clean Air Task Force, about two per cent of the geothermal energy located between three and 10 kilometres beneath the Earth’s surface could provide the equivalent of 2,000 times the current energy demand of the United States alone.”
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info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.