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Dandelion Energy already uses sonic drilling for heat pumps: https://dandelionenergy.com/installing-geothermal-through-bedrock https://dandelionenergy.com/insta

Dandelion Energy already uses sonic drilling for heat pumps: https://dandelionenergy.com/installing-geothermal-through-bedrock https://dandelionenergy.com/installing-geothermal-through-be... Dandelion Energy is a Google X spinoff. Quote "Dandelion developed an innovative and proprietary sonic drill suite that’s lighter, cleaner, and can install 14x faster than a conventional well drill." The thesis in the article goes against some conventional wisdom, but some engineers validated the potential of that approach. The state of art you mention would already make it quite expensive (e.g. mud causes mess, making it less appealing for retrofits, and two trucks add costs).

gtvwill 3y ago
Err you still need to pump mud down hole with a sonic drill rig. A sonic drill rig is exactly like a normal conventional core drill rig it just has the capacity to set a vibration frequency down the rod string. So you can twist and shake rather than just twist. It still needs mud pumped down hole to remove cuttings. Only reason it wouldn't need mud is if your doing like 10m holes and you raw dog it or your drilling RC (which uses air to blast the cuttings out). Which is waaaaay to loud for operation near town. It's basically a small drill rig w a vibrator on it. Those sonics are only good for 1000' (I assume that's ft... which is hilariously small, even at yards it's only just scratching 900m which is 300m less than a low end old world UDR1000 can punch day in day out with its eyes closed.)