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America's Geothermal Breakthrough

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Re: America's Geothermal Breakthrough

#41

Post by 3eb7988a1663 »

rainsford wrote: post #38
r3trohack3r wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems fairly measured to say that it’s not in the interest of the U.S. to build its economic foundation (energy production) on top of a technology it’s incapable of producing without the assistance of a country that’s been fairly open about its plans to take kinetic action against the US sometime in the next 48 months. Help me understand.

Really a couple of key points. The first is that the US isn't "incapable" of producing renewable energy infrastructure, we've just largely chosen not to for various reasons and are certainly capable of doing so if there was a good reason to. But the second and more important point is that relying on another country to produce renewable energy technology is not analogous to relying on another country to supply your ac…

I saw an amusing analysis which said that Trump will go down in history as the clean energy president. No administration will ever do so much to prove the necessity of having renewable energy.

When one leader can cause a global energy crisis, seems obvious the world will go running towards any solution which can mitigate this in the future.

Re: America's Geothermal Breakthrough

#42

Post by bmitch3020 »

r3trohack3r wrote: post #21
ryandrake wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Pretty sure they’re interested in collapsing the cost of domestic energy production in a way that’s resilient to adversarial supply chain risk since energy production is the base of the economic pyramid - energy availability is upstream of nearly all economic output.

When you have a supply chain failure on solar or wind power, you stop adding capacity. When you have a supply chain failure on oil and gas, you stop generating power. These are not the same problem.

We can build capacity to manufacturer renewable power domestically. But I suspect this administration is more interested in protecting the business interest of those that gave them the largest campaign donations than they are in long term energy sustainability.

Re: America's Geothermal Breakthrough

#43

Post by r3trohack3r »

rainsford wrote: post #38
r3trohack3r wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems fairly measured to say that it’s not in the interest of the U.S. to build its economic foundation (energy production) on top of a technology it’s incapable of producing without the assistance of a country that’s been fairly open about its plans to take kinetic action against the US sometime in the next 48 months. Help me understand.

Really a couple of key points. The first is that the US isn't "incapable" of producing renewable energy infrastructure, we've just largely chosen not to for various reasons and are certainly capable of doing so if there was a good reason to. But the second and more important point is that relying on another country to produce renewable energy technology is not analogous to relying on another country to supply your ac…

Just wanted to say thanks for this. You connected two trains of thought I had never put together.

Don’t have a rebuttal.

I’m long on last mile energy production. Solar/battery for domestic, nuclear for industrial, etc. It creates resilience through decentralization. It also is likely to happen organically (no central planning necessary, markets will likely naturally converge here as they drive down prices).

Haven’t spent much time reconciling that with my stance _against_ centralized wind/solar/battery in critical infrastructure in the U.S.

Will think about this for a while, thanks!

Re: America's Geothermal Breakthrough

#44

Post by refulgentis »

r3trohack3r wrote: post #37
amanaplanacanal wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So if something goes wrong between the US and China, the US has 10 years to develop it's own supply. It's not like existing panels and batteries are going to suddenly stop working.

Fair point. But, simultaneously: * I’m skeptical of the U.S. being able to develop domestic supply chains for this under current conditions * “Kinetic action” does imply large swaths of U.S. infrastructure will in fact “suddenly stop working” and need to be rebuilt to maintain capacity

That's fair: as a 3rd party it seems like there's miscommunication leading to impasse, help me understand:

> skeptical of the U.S. being able to develop domestic supply chains for this under current conditions

Right, but, the presupposition there is war, and we have to build it ourselves, presupposes differing conditions. Then there are ameliorations that bridge to your desired conditions mentioned by your interlocutors (stuff still works, 10 year head start)

> “Kinetic action” does imply large swaths of U.S. infrastructure will in fact “suddenly stop working” and need to be rebuilt to maintain capacity

This relies on a maximal reading of the already-maximal "[They have open] plans to take kinetic action against the US [in next 4 years].". I assume they is China, and you are referring to a Taiwan scenario. I haven't seen anyone claim China is going to attack the US in the next 4 years. It is extremely unlikely China ends up knocking out tons of stateside power infrastructure over Taiwan.

Re: America's Geothermal Breakthrough

#45

Post by breakyerself »

r3trohack3r wrote: post #21
ryandrake wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Pretty sure they’re interested in collapsing the cost of domestic energy production in a way that’s resilient to adversarial supply chain risk since energy production is the base of the economic pyramid - energy availability is upstream of nearly all economic output.

They're interested in protecting the profits of industries that line their pockets. It's the most corrupt administration in US history and it isn't even close. Theres some far right ideology mixed in. Particularly from Stephen Miller, but mostly it's grift and graft

Re: America's Geothermal Breakthrough

#46

Post by breakyerself »

3eb7988a1663 wrote: post #41
rainsford wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really a couple of key points. The first is that the US isn't "incapable" of producing renewable energy infrastructure, we've just largely chosen not to for various reasons and are certainly capable of doing so if there was a good reason to. But the second and more important point is that relying on another country to produce renewable energy technology is not analogous to relying on another country to supply your ac…

I saw an amusing analysis which said that Trump will go down in history as the clean energy president. No administration will ever do so much to prove the necessity of having renewable energy. When one leader can cause a global energy crisis, seems obvious the world will go running towards any solution which can mitigate this in the future.

It's a lesson the US won't be able to learn until it has administration capable of learning.

Re: America's Geothermal Breakthrough

#47

Post by pedalpete »

According to google, this would be almost 30% of total US energy production (135gw-150gw) and nearly 5% of total US energy consumption.

But what is the "breakthrough" if there is one? The article doesn't really suggest any breakthrough that is unlocking this potential energy? Or maybe I'm looking for a technological breakthrough where there isn't one.

Re: America's Geothermal Breakthrough

#48

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

pedalpete wrote: post #47

According to google, this would be almost 30% of total US energy production (135gw-150gw) and nearly 5% of total US energy consumption. But what is the "breakthrough" if there is one? The article doesn't really suggest any breakthrough that is unlocking this potential energy? Or maybe I'm looking for a technological breakthrough where there isn't one.

4th paragraph of TFA:

> Several companies are now building upon existing techniques for accessing geothermal resources by integrating enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) into operations. While conventional geothermal systems produce energy using hot water or steam, pumped from naturally occurring hydrothermal reservoirs trapped in rock formations underground, EGS use innovative drilling technologies, such as those used in fracking operations, to drill horizontally and create hydrothermal reservoirs where they don’t currently exist.

Re: America's Geothermal Breakthrough

#49

Post by Animats »

w1 wrote: post #14
Animats wrote: post #8

Oh, Fervo Energy again. They're trying to IPO, hence the hype. Wikipedia's warning: This article reads like a press release or a news article and may be largely based on routine coverage. (February 2026) This article may have been created or edited in return for undisclosed payments, a violation of Wikipedia's terms of use. It may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia's content policies, particularly neutral point…

This isn’t really an evaluation of the company, just explaining how they had to use different financing approaches as they grew and derisked their technology (which makes sense). Compared to some other new approaches for getting clean base load power, it seems like they’ve been pretty grounded and methodical.

They're way ahead of the microwave drilling people.

There's no reason why this shouldn't work. But they've been at it for 9 years, with considerable funding, and it doesn't really work yet. That's a concern.

Re: America's Geothermal Breakthrough

#50

Post by hunterpayne »

gambiting wrote: post #27
quickthrowman wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

District heating and chilled water is uneconomical for single-family homes. It does work well in medium to high density areas.

I don't know how economical that is, but just as an anecdote - the town I'm from in Poland has district heating to all single family homes, town of about 20k people. And coincidentally, I now live in the UK and a new estate near me has district heating to all the houses they are building, not apartment blocks. So it must make some sense to someone, or they wouldn't be outfitting 100+ houses this way.

"I don't know how economical that is"

Sure you do. Think about it. Its just drilling a hole and making electricity from the heat. We have been able to do this for a very long time. So if people aren't really doing it much, its not economical. If it was now becoming economical, the article would describe some new way of doing it that makes it economical. The article doesn't, so you "know" it isn't.

PS This has been tried many time, it only works in very specific situations, usually places where building a full PP doesn't make sense or where you are making a lot of electricity for some other purpose (mining usually).

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