{"id":1236246,"date":"2025-03-02T17:12:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-02T22:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1236246"},"modified":"2025-03-02T17:12:00","modified_gmt":"2025-03-02T22:12:00","slug":"exponential-spin-up-in-geothermal-energy-projects-brings-hope-for-green-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1236246","title":{"rendered":"‘Exponential Spin-up’ In Geothermal Energy Projects Brings Hope for Green Power"},"content":{"rendered":"
Earth’s core “burns with an estimated forty-four trillion watts of power,” the New Yorker reminds us \u2014 enough to “satisfy the entire world’s energy needs” with a power source that’s carbon-free, ubiquitous \u2014 and unlimited. (Besides running 24 hours a day, one of geothermal energy’s key advantages is “it can be used for both electricity and heating, which collectively account for around 38% of global climate emissions…”)
\nAnd one drilling expert tells them there’s been an “exponential spin-up of activity in geothermal” energy projects over the last two years. (Ironically it was the fracking boom also brought an “explosion of new drilling practices \u2014 such as horizontal drilling and magnetic sensing \u2014 that inspired a geothermal resurgence.”) In 2005 one research team calculated that just 2% of the heat just four miles underground in America “could meet the entire country’s energy needs \u2014 two thousand times over,” according to the article. <\/p>\n

So their new article checks in on the progress of geothermal energy projects around the world, including a Utah company using a diamond-bit drill to dig nearly a mile into the earth to install a 150-ton steel tube surrounded by special heat-resistant cement \u2014 all to create “a massive straw” for transporting hot water (and steam).<\/p>\n

The biggest problem is drilling miles through hot rock, safely. If scientists can do that, however, next-generation geothermal power could supply clean energy for eons… At 6:15 P.M. on May 3rd, cement had started flowing into the hole. Four hours later, part of the cement folded in on itself. The next morning, the cement supply ran out; the men had miscalculated how much they needed. This brought the three-hundred-million-dollar operation to a maddening halt… The cement truck from Bakersfield arrived around 8:30 P.M. By ten-thirty, the men were pouring cement again, gluing the enormous metal straw in place. Next, the team scanned the borehole with gamma rays…<\/p>\n

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Read more of this story<\/a> at Slashdot.<\/p>\n