Why don't they ask the Philippines how they do it
this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2024
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Or Iceland
New Iceland Tech Shakes Up Global Geothermal Energy – “The conventional wisdom once posited that Iceland’s geothermal-centric energy model could not be exported or studied. New tech is changing that.”
Anyone who says a thing cannot be studied is making their money from what it will replace.
The problem with geothermal right now is long delays from NEPA reviews. I'm not trying to bash all of NEPA, but oil and gas has a categorical exclusion, while geothermal has to endure a long review process (we have heard up to 7 years from a local geothermal startup) just for drilling the exact same hole in the ground.
It's been a big reason that Citizens' Climate Lobby has been focusing on permitting reform. We're at the point where if all permitting laws were removed, emissions would go down. Now that probably wouldn't be the best idea in practice, but we're in an era where we need to build build build clean energy.
I've always wondered to what extent the horizontal drilling revolution could help with geothermal? It certainly did wonders for fossil fuel extraction, but perhaps this is the silver lining?
Yeah, it might enable geothermal-anywhere. Cost drops sharply each time people try it, as we start a learning-by-doing cycle.
Does that have the same issues with micro quakes that fracking has or is that from the high pressure injections and not the drilling itself?
Likely not due to no need for high pressure liquid being injected into boundary layers.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fracking-can-cause-earthquakes/
However dried up fracking wells could very well be filled with ambient pressure water and used as a thermal sync for hydrothermal energy.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fracking-for-renewable-power-geothermal/
I do not condone the creation of new fracking wells or more oil and gas extraction. However we could use old dried up wells and mines for green energy. Also it'll get more eyes on methane seeps and wells so we can stop the release of unburnt methane into the atmosphere
https://www.iea.org/reports/global-methane-tracker-2024/understanding-methane-emissions
Very cool, thanks for the links as well!
Yes, I believe horizontal drilling has been explored for geothermal and is very beneficial.
I heard that due to that and some other breakthroughs recently, areas that were once thought to be unviable for geothermal like most of the East Coast actually have a lot of potential.
I don't have sources handy, but my friend stays on top of all of this stuff, so I could have him dig up the relevant papers if necessary.
Geothermal is awesome because it’s virtually infinite and super clean. I’d love to see more of this.
Would heat pumps to put heat where we want it in the first place make sense?
They solve different problems.
Advanced geothermal like this provides electricity on-demand, whenever you want it, reducing the need for storage.
Heat pumps move heat inside or into an industrial process, and use electricity in the process.
Heat Pumps with a thermal battery make a ton of sense and they're available right now. The issue with them is that they need a LOT of space in order to work well and they're expensive AF.
The YouTuber "Undecided with Matt Ferrell" recently did a video on them.