Geothermal energy may be approaching its Mitchell moment. George Mitchell, a scrappy independent oilman, is known as the father of fracking. Nearly three decades ago, he defied Big Oil and the conventional wisdom of his industry by making practical the hitherto uneconomic technique of pumping liquids and sands into the ground to force out gas and oil from shale rock and other tight geological formations. The enormous increase in productivity that resulted, known as the shale revolution, has transformed the global hydrocarbon business.
It’s already feasible in parts of the world, Iceland being one of the best examples. Places like Cornwall in the south of England could be made to have geothermal with a bit of work and there’s many locations around the world that lie between the two. It’s a great resource that offers eye watering amounts of power, readily and easily, 24/7 reliability and with no greenhouse gases.
The issues come for the rest of the world in that you need to dig deeper to get the right heat but that’s > just> engineering and we’ve overcome similar extremes before, seee off shore drilling/wind turbines etc… Money and time is something that’s needed. Money seems to be less available which is mine numbingly frustrating given the damage that’s coming if we don’t get our shit together. Time is something we don’t have in abundance especially with what little money there is.
It’s something I hope we see a lot more of but I’m a pessimist these days so I’m not holding my breath.
Thoughts on this? I am a big proponent of nuclear energy, not just because it creates a lot of energy but because it represents a way we can combat the climate crisis.
However, geothermal energy takes advantage of the energy that’s already in the Earth; the trick is accessing it, which the article suggests may soon be a viable option to broadly generate energy without generating greenhouse gases.
Here is the archive link for those interested.
