The biggest project in the US Department of Energy's first round of Advanced Research Projects Agency energy (ARPA-E) grants announced three years ago could pay off in a big way for the laser industry. Foro Energy (Littleton, CO and Houston, TX) has demonstrated that 20 kW of laser power delivered through a special optical fiber can drill through hard rock. "We have completed proof-of-concept testing, and are now developing field-deployable hardware," says Foro chief technical officer Mark Zediker. He foresees applications in geothermal energy and production of oil and natural gas. Mechanical drilling has been the standard in oil and gas production for more than a century. However, penetrating the hardest rocks, such as granite and basalt, requires applying tens of tons of weight to press down on the drill, and wears out the bits quickly. That can make drilling uneconomical for many potential geothermal energy sites, or for oil and gas fields capped by hard rock.
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