EarthGrid

America is transitioning to renewable energy. But our nation’s power grid can’t handle the demand.

That’s where a big new idea comes into the picture: “utility tunnels” bored by high-tech machines. Connecting major cities in the U.S., these tunnels can deliver power, high-speed internet, transportation services, and more.

Elon Musk is working on a network of tunnels like these through The Boring Company, which is already valued at nearly six billion dollars. But so is an early-stage startup called EarthGrid, which has the potential to be just as valuable.

Perhaps surprisingly, a push for underground tunnels in the U.S. has been happening for more than fifty years. But to create these tunnels in the traditional manner, giant boring machines use dozens of steel blades to chip away at soil and rock as they rotate. A cutter-head, which uses disc cutters, sits at the front and does most of the hard work by spinning and digging away at the earth to allow the machine to move forward.

This process sounds great in theory. But conventional tunnel-boring machines struggle with hard rock. They also require regular maintenance and can only operate for a few hours before needing to be charged.

That’s why EarthGrid is developing a new way to tunnel, trench, and excavate: plasma technology. Compared to traditional boring methods, this technology can create tunnels ten times cheaper and 100 times faster than the competition.

Essentially, EarthGrid’s boring machines use high-power plasma torches that vaporize and break up rock, clay, and obstacles into small fragments, a technique known as spallation. As the company’s Founder describes, “Imagine ten lightsabers vaporizing rock and soil, and a Mandalorian jetpack blowing it all out the back.”

Using this technology, EarthGrid aims to create a network of underground tunnels that exist nationwide. Once operational, these tunnels will enable the company to:

Rapidly eliminate dependence on fossil fuels.

Reach 100% renewable energy.

And offer ultra-high-speed internet, sustainable clean water, wastewater services, and transportation/delivery services.

To generate revenue, EarthGrid will offer “boring and drilling as a simple service.” This will be for customers that wish to own their own tunnels. Essentially, EarthGrid will build a tunnel for them at a certain price per meter.

Additionally, the company will offer a “build, own, operate, and maintain” option. This will be for customers that prefer to sign a long-term lease or tolling agreement covering the commodities that flow through EarthGrid’s tunnels.

EarthGrid will cover 100% of the development, construction, and operational costs. But it will collect a toll on everything that travels through its tunnels.

EarthGrid launched in 2016. Between 2017 and 2020, it created two prototypes of a tunnel-boring machine and was awarded its first patent.

In January 2023, the company created a minimum viable product (MVP) of its new trenching system. And it completed its first projects for customers including Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and MGE Underground, a utility-infrastructure contractor specializing in electric distribution and telecommunications.

Notably, EarthGrid has raised more than twenty million dollars from professional investors like Asymmetry Ventures, Monozurki Ventures, Interlock Capital, and Lateral Capital. Prominent angel investors include Boston Harbor Angels, Wharton Alumni, Band of Angels, and the Berkeley Angel Network.

This year, EarthGrid aims to bring in five million dollars in revenue. This is based on contracts that the company has either already signed or that are in its pipeline. In 2025, revenues are projected to reach twenty-two million dollars.

Team Background

Troy Helming - Co-Founder & CEO

Troy has extensive experience in clean-energy infrastructure. He’s founded and sold four different companies in this space, including two of the most successful renewable-energy companies in America. These companies have generated more than $10 billion in economic impact to date.

Early in his career, he Founded TeleTeam Consulting, a telecommunications company focused on fiber optics. TeleTeam became a cellular-service distributor for Nextel Wireless, and created fiber/cable runs underground for voice and data communications. TeleTeam was acquired.

From there, Troy founded Tradewind Energy, which became the No. 1 wind-power developer in the U.S. He raised millions of dollars in investor capital and grew the company to a value of more than one billion dollars. Tradewind was acquired by Enel Green Power (EGP), a deal that, in 2019, made EGP the largest wind and solar development on the globe.

More recently, Troy founded Krystal Energy corporation, a company selling renewable-energy products. He then founded KC Biofuels, a biodiesel refinery.

From there, he founded Pristine Sun, a developer of utility-scale and community solar-power plants. This company had more than 350 solar projects totaling one billion dollars in market value, including the largest floating-solar project award in North America.

Before starting EarthGrid, he was a principal with Industry Capital, a financial-services company. He assisted with solar- and clean-energy project development. He then founded Solarenewal, where he managed a portfolio of a dozen utility-scale solar-power plants. And as noted above, he’s also a co-founder at Petra.

In addition to his current role, Troy is an executive and advisor with Green Reach, an energy company. He’s also the author of a book called “The Clean Power Revolution.”

Troy earned his Bachelor’s degree from The University of Kansas.

Rachelle Chong - Advisor

Rachelle is a government and regulatory affairs expert with experience in key fields like telecommunications, renewable energy, public utilities, transportation, and broadband.

In the mid-90s, she was appointed by President Bill Clinton to serve as Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). At the time, she worked as an attorney in San Francisco specializing in telecommunications law.

More recently, she was appointed by former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to the California Public Utilities Commission. She became the point person for telecommunications, broadband, and internet policies and worked with the U.S. Department of Commerce and Department of Energy. While serving, she created a $100 million services fund to deliver broadband infrastructure to areas without adequate internet speeds.

Rachelle holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of California Berkeley and a Law degree from the University of California Hastings.

Curt Hebert - Advisor

Curt’s experience in the energy sector dates back to the 1990s, when he was nominated by then-President Bill Clinton to serve on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). In 2001, he was named Chairman of the FERC by President George W. Bush and became the youngest Chairman in the commission’s history.

Curt then joined the private sector, working for an energy company called Entergy. While there, he worked on gas-pipeline projects, gas-storage projects, electric-transmission generation and nuclear-energy projects.

In 2010, he left Entergy to start his own company, Lexicon Strategy Group, a legal business focused on energy-related projects. For the past eleven years, he’s been a partner at Brunini Grantham Grower & Hewes, a Mississippi-based law firm, focusing on environmental law and natural-gas transportation and storage.

Curt studied at MIT, earned a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern Mississippi, and a Law degree from Mississippi College School of Law.

Scott Lane - Co-Founder & COO

Scott has more than twenty-five years of experience in the renewable-energy and construction industries.

Most recently, he was Director of Implementation at Centauri Energy, a renewable-energy manufacturing business. Before that, he was Communications Manager with EDF Renewable Energy, a power-generation company.

Earlier, Scott was a program manager with Parsons Engineering, a technology company with ties to the security, defense, and infrastructure industries. Prior to that, he was a senior project manager with Alcoa Wireless, a communications company.

Before that, he was a regional manager with Delta Engineering Group, a civil-engineering company. And prior to that, he was President of Lane Enterprises, a self-owned construction business that specialized in infrastructure projects for the U.S. military.

Scott studied at Louisiana Christian University and Northwestern State University.

Co-Investors

Interlock Capital

A venture fund investing in emerging startups.

Lateral Capital

A venture-capital firm investing in startups.

Asymmetry Ventures

A VC firm investing in early-stage startups.

Monozukuri Ventures

A Japanese venture capital firm investing in early-stage startups.

Berkeley Angel Network

A group of angel investors consisting of alumni and faculty of UC Berkeley.