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The time has finally come for geothermal energy

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Re: The time has finally come for geothermal energy

#121

Post by toomuchtodo »

cbmuser wrote: post #118
toomuchtodo wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They dabble in nuclear, but it is not their focus. China can do what the developed world cannot because they are a command economy with less expensive labor, which will only last for a bit longer due to their structural demographics. Unless the developed world no longer has labor regulations, developed world wages, and capital based allocation systems, my statement stands with regards to investment. If capital and la…

»Your citation comes from an organization with pro nuclear bias.« Go and throw all your money into renewables stocks and ETFs if you’re so convinced. I bet you’re not doing that because you realize that the industry isn’t doing well and it’s nuclear power nowadays where all the money goes.

Personally, I've invested ~500k EUR in a Portuguese Golden Visa fund invested in renewables (IRR is ~7-13%). Macro speaking, renewables investments keep hitting new records. I am convinced, and if you are not, I would strongly suggest consuming more data, because you appear to have a potential blind spot in your mental model on this topic.

https://about.bnef.com/insights/clean-energy/global-renewabl...

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-10-28/white-...

Re: The time has finally come for geothermal energy

#122

Post by cbmuser »

thinkcontext wrote: post #62
yawaramin wrote: post #19

It's nuclear fission. It's always been nuclear fission (well, at least since the '50s) and it will continue to be until we commercialize fusion reactors. Everything else is nice to have but it's like NIH syndrome.

It could be but the US and EU have so far been unable to build commercial fission reactors without going 2x+ over budget in time and money. China is having success but even they are not projected to have nuclear account for more than single digit percentages of their generation. Maybe SMR's, thorium, 4th gen, etc will work out, but maybe not.

»It could be but the US and EU have so far been unable to build commercial fission reactors without going 2x+ over budget in time and money.«

The EU also forgot how to build airports and train stations on budget and on time.

Should we stop building airports and train stations?

As for nuclear power plants: Germany and France built most of their reactors on budget and on time.

Re: The time has finally come for geothermal energy

#123

Post by _whiteCaps_ »

iso1631 wrote: post #98
jmward01 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The right answer is 'yes to all the above'. Yes, we need solar. Yes, we need wind. Yes, we need batteries and, yes, we should be looking at geothermal. Solar has shown us, again, how artificially holding back a technology for decades has massive costs. Investing a few billion into geothermal right now is cheap and can only lead to a more durable energy infrastructure in the future. There are all sorts of benefits to…

One thing which is needed too is spinning load, the grid depends on having enough inertia to maintain the frequency. Flywheels I assume would do that.

Caterpillar provides some really neat small scale flywheel UPS - used in places like hospitals where it would be very bad to lose power. They last long enough for the diesel gennies to start up.

Re: The time has finally come for geothermal energy

#124

Post by [deleted] »

cbmuser wrote: post #119
nagisa wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The options in the '70s were much different from those of today. And for France specifically what they have underground (lots of uranium, no oil, no gas & no coal) strongly suggested exactly one way forward.

Wind and solar existed in the 70s as well. Plus, Germany invested 500 billion Euros in its energy transition and is STILL heavily dependent on coal.

[deleted]

Re: The time has finally come for geothermal energy

#125

Post by bryanlarsen »

iso1631 wrote: post #106
bryanlarsen wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Inverters and batteries (or any other DC source) are also very good at doing this.

Not grid following inverters, or "any DC source", as we saw in Spain in Summer

Yes, if you don't install grid stabilization inverters, they don't supply grid stabilization.

Re: The time has finally come for geothermal energy

#126

Post by danw1979 »

cbmuser wrote: post #110
bryanlarsen wrote: post #57

Baseload generation is useless in 2025. It's in the name; it's called "base load", not "base generation". Base generation was a cost optimization. Planners noticed that load never dropped below a specific level, and that cheapest power was from a plant designed to run 100% of the time rather than one designed to turn on and off frequently. So they could reduce cost by building a mix of base and peaker generation plan…

Or just build out nuclear like France and pay just 20 Cents per kWh. https://particulier.edf.fr/content/dam/2-Actifs/Documents/Of...

Yes please from the UK, where it’s 27 euro cents per kWh currently.

Re: The time has finally come for geothermal energy

#127

Post by bryanlarsen »

cbmuser wrote: post #111
toomuchtodo wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Geothermal is fission, and wind, solar, and batteries are fusion at a distance. In both cases, the failure scenarios are benign vs traditional fission generation. It's fine to keep striving for fusion humans control, but the problem (global electrification and transition to low carbon generation) is already solved with the tech we have today. It took the world 68 years to achieve the first 1TW of solar PV. The next 1…

Look at Electricity Maps and realize that France is the only large industrial country where electricity generation is permanently carbon-free and cheap. https://particulier.edf.fr/content/dam/2-Actifs/Documents/Of...

Norway, Iceland and British Columbia are other examples and are more carbon-free than France is. The latter isn't a country and the former don't count as "large industrial"?

Re: The time has finally come for geothermal energy

#128

Post by bryanlarsen »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #57

Baseload generation is useless in 2025. It's in the name; it's called "base load", not "base generation". Base generation was a cost optimization. Planners noticed that load never dropped below a specific level, and that cheapest power was from a plant designed to run 100% of the time rather than one designed to turn on and off frequently. So they could reduce cost by building a mix of base and peaker generation plan…

P.S. this is a response to the original title, which has since changed making my comment look off-topic.

Re: The time has finally come for geothermal energy

#129

Post by mr_toad »

hluska wrote: post #95
jimbokun wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does "Rejected Energy" mean in that graph? Great chart, by the way.

I live in a part of the world that is far below freezing for a significant portion of the year. Thus a large portion of my annual energy usage goes into not freezing to death. When I drive my daughter to school when it’s -40 fucking degrees, a lot of the energy I use goes into heating my vehicle, swearing, moving and swearing. But this energy also leaks through my windshield, through my exhaust system and through my…

A IC car’s heating system normally taps into the engine’s cooling system, so that heat is mostly free. In a pinch you can actually turn the heater on full to help cool the radiator.

Re: The time has finally come for geothermal energy

#130

Post by defrost »

iso1631 wrote: post #98
jmward01 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The right answer is 'yes to all the above'. Yes, we need solar. Yes, we need wind. Yes, we need batteries and, yes, we should be looking at geothermal. Solar has shown us, again, how artificially holding back a technology for decades has massive costs. Investing a few billion into geothermal right now is cheap and can only lead to a more durable energy infrastructure in the future. There are all sorts of benefits to…

One thing which is needed too is spinning load, the grid depends on having enough inertia to maintain the frequency. Flywheels I assume would do that.

Ignore the clickbait headline here: Australia’s Solar Boom Is Breaking the Grid - Or Is It?

It's a sub 15 minute actual grid engineering for lay public explainer video (I know, I'm not a video fan either)

A better duller title might be: How Australia's Grid is being adapted to Solar Boom

  00:00 Introduction
  01:23 The Problem with Too Much Solar
  03:29 Batteries Change the Economics
  05:40 What the Grid Actually Needs
  07:04 A Cautionary Tale – The 2025 Iberian Blackout
  08:21 Australia’s Secret Weapon – Experience with Weak Grids
  10:08 The Genius Technical Fix – Grid-Forming Inverters
  12:25 The Perfect Partner - Batteries
  12:58 From Mechanical to Software-Defined Stability
  13:42 Conclusion – Fixing the Grid Before It Breaks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qavFbOpt4jA
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