This Week’s Science News from SWTG
Geothermal Power Everywhere: Tech Advances Rapidly
Image: Eavor
Everyone, it seems, has their own favourite panacea for climate change. Mine is aliens. But for an increasing number of people, it’s geothermal energy. And that’s for good reasons. We sit on a big hot ball of molten rock, and it seems like the obvious thing to do. But in contrast to nuclear fusion where every small step gets huge press attention, no one ever talks about what’s going on with geothermal energy. No one, besides me of course. Because the past months a few very interesting things have happened. Let’s have a look.
The amount of energy that resides in Earth’s crust in form of heat is staggering. Geoscientists estimate that the total energy reserves in the upper 10 kilometres of Earth’s crust are enough to cover the world’s energy needs for several hundred million years.
The major problem with geothermal energy is that drilling is really expensive, and the deeper you want to drill the more expensive it gets. That’s why, at the moment, geothermal energy is commercially viable only in places where the heat isn’t too far deep down.
Then again. The technology of geothermal energy has never been much developed. Because if you’re drilling already, you might as well drill for oil or gas and use that to generate energy.
Oil and gas has become somewhat unpopular recently, and now the technology of geothermal energy production is receiving a close look. And there’s been so little done that easy gains can still be made.
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