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America's Geothermal Breakthrough

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Re: America's Geothermal Breakthrough

#131

Post by deliciousturkey »

ninalanyon wrote: post #128
wood_spirit wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the nordics it is common to have ground source heat pumps (brine in closed circuit pipe or bore hole) that are run backwards in summer to cool the house while actually assisting in storing heat back in the ground to extract in the winter. It’s a bit like regenerative breaking on electric cars.

No it's not. It exists but it's certainly not common for individual dwelling to use ground source heat pumps, at least in Norway. It is more common in Sweden[1] but still far less common than air source and over 90% of heat pump installations in Norway are air source[2]. The only ground source installations I can think of in Norway serve large office buildings and similar. The largest heat pump installation I know of…

In Finland around 50% of new single-family homes use ground source heat pumps. So it's definitely popular here.

Re: America's Geothermal Breakthrough

#132

Post by nandomrumber »

scandals wrote: post #112
nandomrumber wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> their price everywhere is impacted by restriction on their trade anywhere. That’s entirely a human fabrication. Any country can decide at any time to simple give their fossil fuel reserves away. Australia does, so I don’t see why any other country can’t do the same. Also, your plan relies on the power electronics and industrial control systems used in solar / wind deployments not being backdoored, which isn’t a bet…

Giving their fossil fuel reserves away isn't exactly solving anything is it though? They happen to be giving the reserves away to foreign investors and thus driving domestic prices significantly higher then they aught to be.

It’s definitely solving for making someone else richer.

I’m lead believe it makes LNG less expensive for Japanese industry, which probably effects the price of goods manufactured in Japan.

Re: America's Geothermal Breakthrough

#133

Post by lostlogin »

dboreham wrote: post #117
lostlogin wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if you want to generate power, you need to get down to where temperatures can boil water. That's deeper than most oil wells. That’s going to be very dependant on location. Here in NZ there are regions where water is boiling at surface level. According to the below, 18% of our power is produced with it. https://www.eeca.govt.nz/insights/energy-in-new-zealand/rene...

There are also places in the US with boiling water at the surface. I live near one of those places so always curious about geothermal. There's a spot near my house in a creek bed where snow always melts even in deep winter so apparently I have some potential heat source. Our well water is cold though.

Not near me, but hot water spring, rivers and beaches made for a nice soak every now and again.

Turning them all into power plants would be a shame, but there is plenty of space for both.

Re: America's Geothermal Breakthrough

#134

Post by the_why_of_y »

nandomrumber wrote: post #69
burkaman wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There aren't, and there certainly won't be if we keep blocking the industry at every turn. Maybe I'm misunderstanding your point but I don't see how this is relevant. Blocking a developer that wants to buy wind turbines from another country and install them in the US does not make domestic energy cheaper or make domestic supply chains more resilient. It's a one-time import, once it's installed the wind is domestic an…

> Blocking a developer that wants to buy wind turbines from another country and install them in the US does not make domestic energy cheaper or make domestic supply chains more resilient. On the other hand, there are, what, approximately zero examples of where wind / solar market penetration is worth writing about and electricity has gotten cheaper.

Australian households will be able to access free electricity for three hours every day, in an effort to encourage energy use when excess solar power is being fed into the grid.

The federal government scheme will require retailers to offer free electricity to households for at least three hours in the middle of the day, when there is often more electricity generated than is being used, leading to very cheap or even negative wholesale prices.

Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen said the scheme would share around the benefits of solar panels, including to those without panels or who rented their homes.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-03/energy-retailers-offe...

Re: America's Geothermal Breakthrough

#135

Post by emil-lp »

ninalanyon wrote: post #128
wood_spirit wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the nordics it is common to have ground source heat pumps (brine in closed circuit pipe or bore hole) that are run backwards in summer to cool the house while actually assisting in storing heat back in the ground to extract in the winter. It’s a bit like regenerative breaking on electric cars.

No it's not. It exists but it's certainly not common for individual dwelling to use ground source heat pumps, at least in Norway. It is more common in Sweden[1] but still far less common than air source and over 90% of heat pump installations in Norway are air source[2]. The only ground source installations I can think of in Norway serve large office buildings and similar. The largest heat pump installation I know of…

3 schools in my neighborhood (barneskole, ungdomsskole & videregående) all use ground source heat pumps.

Re: America's Geothermal Breakthrough

#136

Post by [deleted] »

ninalanyon wrote: post #128
wood_spirit wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the nordics it is common to have ground source heat pumps (brine in closed circuit pipe or bore hole) that are run backwards in summer to cool the house while actually assisting in storing heat back in the ground to extract in the winter. It’s a bit like regenerative breaking on electric cars.

No it's not. It exists but it's certainly not common for individual dwelling to use ground source heat pumps, at least in Norway. It is more common in Sweden[1] but still far less common than air source and over 90% of heat pump installations in Norway are air source[2]. The only ground source installations I can think of in Norway serve large office buildings and similar. The largest heat pump installation I know of…

[deleted]

Re: America's Geothermal Breakthrough

#137

Post by metalman »

this looks like a search for fluffy money durring an energy crisis.

Turbines are completly mature, and nothing dealing with some new deap drilling breakthrough or heat exhanger advancement, or more efficient and durable pumps, crittical CO², or H²O ?, not yet. Existing geothermal plants use the same generation technology as a coal plant, but use near surface heat assosiated with volcanoes and hot springs, and there is a distinct limit on more of that.

Re: America's Geothermal Breakthrough

#138

Post by rcxdude »

hunterpayne wrote: post #52
readthenotes1 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that similar to how neighborhood heat pumps work? https://www.araner.com/blog/district-heating-in-sweden-effic...

Heat pumps require a specific temperate differential to work. So they work in zones with are a bit hotter or colder than you would like and so require moderate amounts of heating or cooling. They don't work in temperate zones nor in very hot or cold places. So Santa Fe or Minneapolis for example they work but Mexico City or San Francisco they don't. If you are in a place where they work and that isn't too dense or ha…

Heat pumps have gotten a lot better, you need a pretty extreme climate for them to start to struggle, even the air-source ones.

(And PV works well enough in the UK for it to be a no-brainer to put on residentials roofs, which is on the whole the most expensive way to deploy it. Though this is in large part due to the way that it competes with retail prices and not wholesale prices)

Re: America's Geothermal Breakthrough

#139

Post by sumea »

ninalanyon wrote: post #128
wood_spirit wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the nordics it is common to have ground source heat pumps (brine in closed circuit pipe or bore hole) that are run backwards in summer to cool the house while actually assisting in storing heat back in the ground to extract in the winter. It’s a bit like regenerative breaking on electric cars.

No it's not. It exists but it's certainly not common for individual dwelling to use ground source heat pumps, at least in Norway. It is more common in Sweden[1] but still far less common than air source and over 90% of heat pump installations in Norway are air source[2]. The only ground source installations I can think of in Norway serve large office buildings and similar. The largest heat pump installation I know of…

If by Nordics you mean Norway, Sweden and Finland, then the most correct way to say would be that ground source heat pumps for redidential heating are (very) common in Sweden and Finland, especially in newer and larger buildings. Norway is somewhat different in energy and climate perspective than its eastern neighbours.

The biggest reason to not install ground source heat pump is high installation cost. This means that it makes more sense for larger residential buildings. Also If you have district heating available then this might be more economical in the long run.

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