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You can have geothermal power everywhere if you drill deep enough

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Re: You can have geothermal power everywhere if you drill deep enough

#251

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

semi-extrinsic wrote: post #108
derefr wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Anything that works would be used by the oil and gas industry, and if they're not trying it, one suspects it might not be working. To flip that around: this would imply that the most under-investigated-in-industry approaches to deep hole boring would be the ones that destroy the economic value of any oil-and-gas in the ground, no? Ones that make the ground radioactive, perhaps. Or that would set any potential oil f…

Don't worry, we were doing nuclear fracking back in the days. Everything that could work has been tried for oil and gas exploration. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Gasbuggy Regarding drilling operations that destroy value: you're forgetting that drilling is 1D while oil fields are 3D (technically quasi-2D with horizontal dimensions 100x to 1000x larger than vertical dimensions). If your drilling messes up ever…

> Don't worry, we were doing nuclear fracking back in the days. Everything that could work has been tried for oil and gas exploration.

Likewise, everything that conceivably could be done with nuclear was tried or at least designed for a while there - lighting watches with radium, digging canals with nukes, space travel by continuously exploding nukes behind you... good times. (Horrifying times, but w/e;])

Re: You can have geothermal power everywhere if you drill deep enough

#252

Post by germinalphrase »

gumby wrote: post #238
germinalphrase wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keywords for learning more about ‘climate repair’?

Literally “climate repair” and “climate restoration”. Some NGOs to check out include the Centre for Climate Repair at Cambridge and Foundation for Climate restoration.

Thank you.

Re: You can have geothermal power everywhere if you drill deep enough

#253

Post by pm90 »

masklinn wrote: post #187
pm90 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We don't live in grass yurts you know. Bridges and dams are a thing. Earthquakes are a problem. Deep fracking operations have demonstrated this already. What percentage of rural areas are situated in close proximity to large dams and bridges?

Your statement is unclear, are you saying it doesn’t matter if dams and bridges get destroyed, or that it doesn’t matter if rural habitations get destroyed as long as they’re not destroyed near infrastructure?

It’s perfectly clear if you read it without trying to be deliberately obtuse.

Re: You can have geothermal power everywhere if you drill deep enough

#254

Post by dan_mctree »

anonporridge wrote: post #9

Something I've always wondered. Wouldn't massive scale geothermal end up pumping more heat into the atmosphere that otherwise wouldn't be there? In contrast, the energy collected by solar and wind generators is from the energy added to Earth by the sun and would be energy in our atmosphere regardless of whether or not we collect it. But it seems like the heat inside the Earth's core should be fairly well insulated by…

The amount of heat in the atmosphere at any point doesn't really matter all that much for global warming. What matters is the break-even point between the amount of energy we gain from and lose to space. Since the earth emits more energy if it's warmer (black body radiation), the break-even point relates to the temperature of the earth. If we change something about the earth's in or output of energy, the earth's temperature will naturally rise until the break even point is reached again.

By introducing greenhouse gasses, we are affecting earth's ability to radiate energy to space and thus the temperature at which we have our break-even point. Should all greenhouse gasses disappear, the earth would rapidly start cooling until it reaches its new break-even point.

Re: You can have geothermal power everywhere if you drill deep enough

#255

Post by marcosdumay »

pmoriarty wrote: post #245
ijidak wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Geothermal heating provides unlimited fuel for people in houses, staying still This sounds like the beginning of a great sci-fi novel. A future where Earth's core has cooled because of excess draws to power humanity. Now, the planet is losing it's magnetic field. To save humanity, humans need to re-heat the core, build biospheres, or leave the planet.

"A future where Earth's core has cooled because of excess draws to power humanity." Has anyone done the napkin math for how long that would take?

We basically can not accelerate the process. Almost all the resistance to heat movement is on layers we can not reach at all.

Re: You can have geothermal power everywhere if you drill deep enough

#256

Post by marcosdumay »

kbenson wrote: post #237
blibble wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sounds similar to the plot of The Core (it was not great)

It's surprising how often that movie comes up, especially given how it's often accompanied by a note that it's not good. I suspect it's hit a pseudo-cult classic film status. The last few times I've seen it mentioned I've had the desire to seek it out and watch it again since I only remember bits and pieces.

That's what you get when you do a lot of publicity for a movie that is not good.

Re: You can have geothermal power everywhere if you drill deep enough

#257

Post by irq-1 »

raducu wrote: post #166
kragen wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Conventional “mechanical” drilling isn’t very heat tolerant because heat softens metal. For oil and even gas drilling it doesn’t need to be; they’re located in cooler rock. For supercritical steam EGS heat tolerance is a sine qua non. Conventional approaches might still work best, but it’s also plausible that what’s best for gas isn’t best for EGS.

But if we get to temperatures that destory metals, isn't it enough? Why don't we drill to whatever is the termal limit, make a big cavity there, install radiators there and just heat the watter to that temperature and take it out to surface where we can heat homes. I know this is done in Bucharest for a water park (to much lesser depths because apparently we have hot springs near Bucharest). Do we need to reach magma…

> Do we need to reach magma?

Nope. Over the last ~20 years the drilling industry has gotten good at: angle drilling (not slant drilling but turning the drill angle at the bottom) and fracking, or pumping fluid through rock to break it up. This means conventional methods can dig far down, turn the drill and make a reserve with fracking. The heat is much less but it's conventional technology.

https://www.ted.com/talks/jamie_c_beard_the_untapped_energy_...

Re: You can have geothermal power everywhere if you drill deep enough

#258

Post by dhosek »

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #251
semi-extrinsic wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't worry, we were doing nuclear fracking back in the days. Everything that could work has been tried for oil and gas exploration. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Gasbuggy Regarding drilling operations that destroy value: you're forgetting that drilling is 1D while oil fields are 3D (technically quasi-2D with horizontal dimensions 100x to 1000x larger than vertical dimensions). If your drilling messes up ever…

> Don't worry, we were doing nuclear fracking back in the days. Everything that could work has been tried for oil and gas exploration. Likewise, everything that conceivably could be done with nuclear was tried or at least designed for a while there - lighting watches with radium, digging canals with nukes, space travel by continuously exploding nukes behind you... good times. (Horrifying times, but w/e;])

Not to mention https://gajitz.com/1950s-radioactive-science-kit-most-danger...

Re: You can have geothermal power everywhere if you drill deep enough

#259

Post by perlgeek »

abeppu wrote: post #239

> The microwave beam is hot enough to evaporate rock, and the vaporized rock is pumped back to the surface. Is this part harder than it sounds? Do you need to keep it as hot vapor until it gets to the surface? What do you do with it then? Presumably a 12 mile column of rock turns into a whole lot of vapor. Is it toxic? When vaporized rock cools, does it become just sand, or are there interesting/concerning chemicals…

I don't really know, so take my answer with a grain of salt, but my lay understanding of chemistry and physics tells me:

* Typically vaporized solids a fine powder they cools down in air, or otherwise deposit on cool surfaces

* Fine rock powder could be hazard to lungs, but it shouldn't be too hard filter it out of the air that leaves the hole

* Some rock materials contain sulfates or phosphates; letting those escape into the atmosphere in large quantities would be bad; but you could always let it recombine with the rest of the evaporated rock, rendering it inert. Such a process wouldn't be 100%, so this is something worth looking out for.

Most wealthy countries require an environmental impact assessment before any such operation, so there's hope such things would be caught before they become a big problem.

Re: You can have geothermal power everywhere if you drill deep enough

#260

Post by perlgeek »

a1371 wrote: post #24

A lot of people like to talk about nuclear as a climate solution. Geothermal is the most gargantuous nuclear plant we can fathom, all we have to do is to extend a pipe and harvest it. Here is the thing, a lot of that tech is coming from oil and gas. An industry with a track record of leaving the land they enter in terrible shape. I think we have to start over with geothermal and look at it more like hydro electricity…

> and look at it more like hydro electricity

I hope you are aware that hydro also has a reputation for destroying natural environments at a pretty huge scale

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