Geothermal Energy Faces the Challenge of Drilling
Deep geothermal energy is often touted as a promising renewable energy source. By harnessing the heat naturally present underground, it can produce electricity and heat continuously, regardless of weather conditions. However, its large-scale deployment faces a major challenge: drilling wells. The deeper the wells, the faster costs rise. Today, drilling can account for more than 50% of the total cost of a geothermal project.
Added to this are other constraints: drilling speeds that are sometimes insufficient, downtime that is difficult to anticipate, and still limited knowledge of the underground reservoirs being traversed. These uncertainties increase the technical and financial risks associated with such projects. In this context, improving drilling techniques and our understanding of the subsurface appears to be essential for accelerating the development of geothermal energy.
Drilling More Efficiently Through Controlled Percussion
To address these challenges, Drilluminate is developing a new generation of drilling tools that combine two complementary rock-fragmentation mechanisms: percussion, which involves applying repeated impacts, and shearing, which causes the rock to break through a cutting and sliding action. Conventional drilling technologies rely primarily on rotary bits equipped with cutting elements, which fragment the rock by scraping it under the effect of rotation and applied force. This approach, which has been extensively tested in the industry, nevertheless shows its limitations in certain deep geological formations, where stress conditions, rock hardness, and performance requirements make drilling more complex, slower, and more expensive.
Drilluminate’s technology introduces an additional component: controlled percussion. This allows the drill bit and percussion energy to be adapted to the formations being drilled through. The combination of percussion and shearing improves the fragmentation of the formations being drilled through: the impacts initiate and propagate cracks in the rock, which then facilitates its removal by shearing.
This flexibility improves drilling performance in rocks with varying properties, while increasing penetration rate.
Turning the drill bit into an imaging tool
Drilluminate’s uniqueness also lies in its ability to provide information about the subsurface during drilling.
The technology utilizes the principle of Seismic While Drilling (SWD). When a tool strikes rock, it generates seismic waves that travel through the subsurface. Analyzing these signals provides information about the surrounding geological structure: the drill bit’s position, the nature of the rocks being drilled through (hardness, composition), and the possible presence of fractures.
This approach can be compared to certain medical imaging techniques that use waves to observe the interior of the human body, such as ultrasound. Just as sound waves allow us to visualize the interior of the human body, the seismic waves produced by drilling reveal the geological structure around the well.
Tests have shown that five minutes of drilling with the Drilluminate tool can yield more actionable information for imaging than several hours of conventional drilling using traditional seismic-while-drilling methods.
An Innovation Supporting the Energy Transition
Improving drilling performance is not merely an economic issue. It also determines the ability to more widely exploit certain deep geothermal resources.
By reaching greater depths, it becomes possible to access higher temperatures, thereby increasing a well’s energy production and reducing the total number of installations required for the same installed capacity.
How can we reduce the development costs of geothermal projects? How can we limit the risks associated with reservoir uncertainty? How can we improve our understanding of the subsurface without interrupting operations? By combining drilling with real-time imaging, Drilluminate provides concrete solutions to these challenges.
From Mines Paris – PSL Research to Energy Innovation
The technologies developed by Drilluminate are based on years of research and experimentation in the fields of drilling and geophysics.
Tests conducted at Mines Paris – PSL’s experimental facilities have enabled the comparison of different drilling techniques and the gradual improvement of the system’s performance. Demonstrations under real-world conditions have also validated the technology’s potential for seismic applications during drilling.
This continuity between academic research, experimental validation, and entrepreneurial development illustrates Mines Paris – PSL’s ability to transform cutting-edge scientific knowledge into innovations that address major energy challenges.
VivaTech, an international showcase for research and entrepreneurial innovation
VivaTech has established itself as the global gathering for startups, companies, and research stakeholders shaping the technologies of tomorrow. For its first participation in the event, the PSL University—of which Mines Paris–PSL is a member institution—will present some twenty projects from its member institutions, in collaboration with the University Innovation Hub (PUI) and the University’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Drilluminate’s presence at VivaTech 2026 illustrates the role played by Mines Paris – PSL in transforming scientific knowledge into concrete innovations capable of supporting the energy transition.
This collective presence reflects a strong ambition: to support the entire innovation journey, from the emergence of ideas in laboratories to the creation of deep-tech companies addressing major industrial and societal challenges.
Visit the PSL University booth
- June 17–19, 2026 – Paris Expo Porte de Versailles
- Hall 7 • Zone B • Booth 2C01
- The full program
Mines Paris – PSL, a breeding ground for impactful deep tech
By supporting initiatives such as Drilluminate, Mines Paris – PSL reaffirms its commitment to research that is open to the socio-economic world. The School supports its researchers and entrepreneurs through the various stages of their projects’ development: technological development, industrial partnerships, knowledge transfer, and business creation.
Drilluminate exemplifies this dynamic. Built on cutting-edge scientific expertise in drilling, rock mechanics, and geophysics, the startup is developing technologies to make geothermal energy extraction more efficient and less risky.
At VivaTech, the company will showcase a vision of innovation deeply rooted in the missions of Mines Paris – PSL: putting science to work to address the major challenges of our time and helping to build a more sustainable energy system.
Learn more about entrepreneurship at Mines Paris – PSL
