Geothermal Energy Often Overlooked As Renewable Resource

scientificamerican.com:

Harnessing the earth's heat to generate electricity has long been an overlooked renewable resource, despite having produced power reliably in Italy since 1904.

Read the whole story: scientificamerican.com

Comments

[Genders]

07:48 PM on 02/15/2011

Geothermal causes earthquakes, sorry.

[esquilax]

09:40 AM on 02/16/2011

That's a rather sweeping dismissal. ;)

It would be more correct to say that certain experimental methods in Hot Dry Rock (now called Enhanced Geothermal or EGS) have caused some tremor activity. Most notably in Switzerland where a project was shutdown.

The French have small EGS projects underway that are proving very promising using hydraulic fracturing (similar to gas methods). These same systems are being tested in Australia's Cooper Basin which is geological very isolated, but an enormous radioactive decay field about 6km deep.

This paper deals with some of the issues nicely;

http://www.iea.org/impagr/cip/pdf/Issue48Geothermal.pdf

[esquilax]

06:33 PM on 02/16/2011

Your reply hasn't come through for some reason, but water use is a definite concern. In Australia we recently had a breakthrough with EGS in the Cooper Basin. It seems that water "consumption" has stopped. The fractured rock is "full" and the system is circulating now. This is the expectation in many EGS locations, but the question remains how much water needs to go down the well before it stabilises and where does it come from. It's vital we figure it out I think; geothermal could answer the base load/backup power question in a renewable future.

[Genders]

08:12 PM on 02/16/2011

Did it come through for awhile? That's strange. Yes geothermal seem to require 4 times as much water as any other energy source. I mentioned the constant earth quakes the people of N California suffer through. I can't see why they would not post it, but it's their site....

[mamacat]

04:00 PM on 02/15/2011

Something around 50% of all the geothermal energy tapped into on the entire planet is done right here in CA. Also, there are currently geothermal development projects underway in the US which will double the amount of electricity from this resource. In many places in the Western US geothermal is a low hanging fruit, just waiting to be plucked.

[Kenz300]

10:28 AM on 02/15/2011

Wind, solar wave energy, geothermal and second generation biofuels are the future.

[JScott]

12:52 AM on 02/15/2011

So far it's only done where the earth's crust is relatively thin for drilling down to the heated part-like the Nevada in the article, The Geysers in N. Cal. Imperial Valley in Ca. and Iceland. (Mostly places where earthquake faults are) If they can overcome the obstacles (mostly economics and politcal will) for drilling where the crust is not so thin then it's viable, kinda like the ideas of expanding desalinization.

[lightningbolt]

04:13 PM on 02/14/2011

Geothermal energy is a great source for our electricity needs.  We should encourage the government to invest more in it.

[krz2]

07:35 PM on 02/15/2011

why government? GE, Exxon , a number of companies have the science and technology at hand.

[steama]

03:20 PM on 02/14/2011

Limitless, reliable, clean power sounds great to me. If you have ever been to Yellowstone it is amazing to see it active in nature.

[doubleB]

03:17 PM on 02/14/2011

Ahhh... geothermal. The red-headed stepchild of renewable energy. It's more reliable than nuclear, competitive with coal, has next to nil emissions, is quiet, takes up very little footprint... yet solar and wind get all the publicity. You'd think Big Oil would be all over this. It'd be an easy transition to go from drilling for oil to drilling for geothermal and / or using old oil wells for geothermal.

[krz2]

07:45 PM on 02/15/2011

you would think.have to get to the grid. but you would think it would be much more efficient than wind or solar.

[Kenz300]

03:00 PM on 02/14/2011

Wind, solar, geothermal, wave energy and second generation biofuels are the future.

It is time to transition to safe, clean alternative energy.

Our economic security and national security will depend on our transition to
alternative energy and reduce our dependence on foreign oil.