A drilling technology being developed by Eavor Technologies Inc. is designed to let the Calgary-based geothermal energy company dig deeper and access higher temperatures, building a stronger economic case for its adoption.

The approximately $83-million effort is dubbed Eavor-Jules, named after the French science-fiction novelist Jules Verne who authored Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

While not at the ambition of reaching the planet’s core, the target with Eavor-Jules is to enhance the company’s Eavor-Loop so it can go as deep as 15 kilometres in depth.

Eavor-Jules “is all about going deeper and going hotter, and enabling us to deliver affordable, clean dispatchable power and heat pretty much anywhere in the world,” Matt Toews, Eavor’s chief technology and operating officer, said in an interview with Sustainable Biz Canada.

Drilling deeper with Jules

Jules is the evolution of Eavor-Loop, Toews said, which taps into hot rocks deep underground to generate heat and electricity.

Eavor is hitting the limits for current drilling technology, Toews explained, demanding development on a technology like Jules. It is a project that has been in the works for years, he said, a “pretty ambitious effort” not without risk.

While Toews declined to disclose certain technical details about Eavor-Jules, he noted at depths of approximately 15 kilometres, Eavor-Loop would be able to exploit temperatures exceeding 400 C. At such heat, it would significantly elevate the potential electricity generation of Loop, Toews said.

By drilling deeper and accessing hotter temperatures, it would increase the energy production per system, raising efficiency and driving down costs.

Eavor plans to build the equipment for Jules in the coming months. Then the company plans to derisk, test, build, commission and commercialize the technology, which is expected to take until the end of the decade.

The hope, Toews said, is to have Eavor-Jules first tested east of Calgary in 2028. Eavor would need to prove the drilling equipment works and satisfies its performance targets.

For the development of Jules, Eavor received $8 million from Emissions Reduction Alberta's Drilling Technology Challenge, which is supported by the Alberta government’s Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction fund. The remaining funding was private investment from Eavor, Toews said.

Clean, affordable, unrestrained geographically

The objective with Jules is to lower Eavor’s cost of energy, enabling geothermal development almost anywhere, Toews said.

“We’re talking about expanding the reach of geothermal to regions that just have average geothermal gradient, and it’s applicable globally.”

Toews listed Canada, the U.S., Japan, Europe, Africa and Asia as examples.

Paul Cairns, an Eavor co-founder and then-chief business development officer, told Sustainable Biz Canada in 2024 that the company can help address many countries’ reliance on natural gas.

Eavor is developing its first-of-a-kind commercial project in Germany. Set in Geretsried, it is planned to hit a depth of approximately 4.5 kilometres and generate 8.2 megawatts (MW) of electricity and 64 MW of thermal energy. Such clean energy would be enough to offset the equivalent of approximately 44,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

As its geothermal technology becomes derisked, Eavor plans to transition away from being a project developer to a partner with other companies, providing services and licensing its intellectual property, Toews said.

Eavor is excited about what Jules can offer, he said.

“This is an evolution, a progression of our technology” that “enables us to deliver this form of power that the market really wants that’s clean, affordable in price, that can pretty much go anywhere.”