The Underground Solution to America’s Electric Grid Crisis

We are building an underground network of utility tunnels, bored by a plasma tunnel boring robot. Imagine 10 lightsabers vaporizing rock & soil, and a Mandalorian jetpack blowing it all out the back.

EarthGrid has invented plasma tunnel boring robots that are solar-powered, use no water, have zero emissions and can bore tunnels 100x faster at 1/10th the cost of conventional techniques. They are building a network of large, underground utility tunnels that improve infrastructure and rapidly accelerate the transition to 100% clean energy by enabling underground clean energy power lines, high-speed data, water, and wastewater, H2 pipelines, e-commerce parcel transportation via pneumatic tubes, etc. They have a BOOM model (Build, Own, Operate and Manage) and intend to lease space to investment-grade utilities.

I had attended a team Happy Hour at a former company of mine, and over beers, a GIS solar engineer – a former Navy SEAL – was bragging to his girlfriend about how his SEAL team used to practice taking over enemy ships by cutting through the side of the vessel underwater using a plasma cutting torch. He said it operated at over 20,000 degrees and could take your arm off. The team was impressed with the story. I woke up that night in the middle of the night with an “ah ha” moment, thinking plasma could be repurposed to bore tunnels through rock faster & cheaper to solve this problem. I paid an engineering firm to complete a feasibility study in 2017, built the prototype, proved it worked, and personally invested $13 Million to bootstrap the company for the first five years.

• Test Tunnel completed!

• • In March ‘24, EarthGrid completed a 2.5-meter (8’ tall) test tunnel! Removed ~40 cubic meters of hard rock in ~30 hours with (1) torch

• $4 Billion customer pipeline
  • Significant customer traction (excluding the JV) including US Air Force
• $7 Billion+ Joint Venture
  • MOU signed 3/23; Joint Venture closed 9/23; Board approval from JV partner received 3/24; comfort letter received 1/24; (2) lender Term Sheets received for EarthGrid’s 30% share.

• 46 State Telco Utility approvals
  • Added 21 states (24 states in fall 2022 to 46 states as of 5/23/2024) via CPCNs (Certificates of Public Convenience & Necessity) totaling ~97% of US GDP & population.
• $300-600M IP Value
  • Received an indicative offer for a $150 Million loan from an institutional lender, valuing our IP at $300-600 Million (> 1,000 trade secrets). 
• $310M Project value
  • Projects in development (TX, CA, NV, etc.) including (3) interconnection apps, ROW confirmation with our CPCN & FERC, signed PPAs, pending customer contracts

Technically, the only contract is the JV—everything else has not been solidified yet. The JV we have signed is still conditional, and we have four other contracts pending. The JV is a multibillion-dollar deal. We will immediately have a 3-5 year plan if conditions are met. Pending projects can create over $100M in value and launch us into the data center and solar and wind industries as a key solution provider.

The biggest expenditures would be additional hardware and construction costs, but with contacts from credit-worthy investors then, we are able to raise non-dilutive capital (construction loans, project finance, gov grants & equipment financing).

The most important lesson is to stay focused on customer traction and revenue and not get caught up in “opportunity creep”. As the saying goes, “The wolf that chases two rabbits goes hungry”