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GOOGLE EARTH:
Google Invests $10M In Geothermal



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- markie1111 See Profile I'm a Fan of markie1111

smart boys. minimal foot print both enviromentally and carbonwise. long term payback. now if they would spend the cash to bury them, the elk would say okay!!!

    Reply    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:24 PM on 08/20/2008
- JohnKdrew See Profile I'm a Fan of JohnKdrew

This is FANTASTIC " we need so little room really to harvest solar energy " just the confidence to back this new (well actually very old) energy source.. We can all help to make wise climate change resource decisions " read the emergency triage response to current climate change crises at
ClimateTriage

    Reply    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:22 PM on 08/20/2008
- DRaymond See Profile I'm a Fan of DRaymond

In all the recent heated discussion about solar vs wind vs nuclear vs more oil drilling geothermal has gotten short shrift. Every dollar that oil goes up it becomes that much more economical to drill deeper for heat, and if you drill far enough every place on earth has geothermal though obviously some places are better than others.

Plus it is perfectly green, endlessly renewable, and doesn't take a lot of land area from other uses or nature.

    Reply    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 03:04 PM on 08/20/2008
- sheila See Profile I'm a Fan of sheila

Point of use "geothermal" which taps into the steady temperature of the earth, not into boiling water, is a fantastic pre-heating and pre-cooling solution for existing and new structures. You can get a radiant floor fluid to roughly 60 degrees, then heat or cool it a bit from there to your desired temp... Some estimates say it can cut heating/cooling energy use by more than 50% even after the pump is accounted for.

That is really the only "perfectly green" use of geothermal. there are too many issues with other deep uses, like sulphuric acids, lengthy transmission, collapsing aquifers, excessive water use, flushing of heavy metals, etc.

    Reply    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 04:48 PM on 08/20/2008
- KillTheMessenger See Profile I'm a Fan of KillTheMessenger

Geothermal does not replace oil any more than nuclear energy does. It is a fabulous technology for places that have easy access to hot geological layers with good thermal conductivity.

I wouldn't call geothermal truly renewable. Average geothermal heat flow from below is something like 60mW/m^2, i.e. it's nearly four orders of magnitude below solar energy flux. Admittedly, there might be enough heat capacity in good sites for centuries to come, but once that heat is gone, geothermal will run "out of steam" pretty much like oil does.

    Reply    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 03:51 PM on 08/20/2008
- ThirdEye See Profile I'm a Fan of ThirdEye

Thank you Google for stepping up to the plate!
Now if more people can just put their money where there mouths are maybe we can pull ourselves out of this energy mess.

    Reply    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 12:50 PM on 08/20/2008
- sheila See Profile I'm a Fan of sheila

gee, Google, thanks. because if anyone needs more R & D, it's Big Energy Monopolists!!! why not invest in the kind of tech that will DO NO EVIL, as in, will give INDIVIDUALS INDEPENDENCE from Chevron, Pickens, Edison, Sempra, etc? all you are doing by diverting all that money to centralized solutions, is investing in destroying our open spaces, bleeding taxpayers and ratepayers dry, and ensuring that the 21st century follows in the exact footsteps of the 20th - with Robber Barons manipulating our energy supplies and prices.

with friends like Google, we don't need Big Oil, Big Coal and Big Electric!

do the right thing, Goog, and start investing in something that will help PEOPLE, like point of use renewables, smart meters and conservation tech, and stop investing in projects that will make 20 people rich while socializing all the costs onto the planet, ratepayers and taxpayers...

    Reply    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 11:33 AM on 08/20/2008
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