Geothermal Power Everywhere: Tech Advances Rapidly
Geothermal Power Everywhere: Tech Advances Rapidly
Estimated heat energy in upper 10km of Earth's crust: 1 million billion Gigawatts
Geothermal Power Everywhere: Tech Advances Rapidly
Estimated heat energy in upper 10km of Earth's crust: 1 million billion Gigawatts
I have an issue with this youtuber due to a transphobic video they posted some time ago, so personally, I don't watch this channel's videos anymore.
More info:
Physicist Sabine Hossenfelder Screws up on Trans Kids' Care - Rebecca Watson (Skepchick)
...and for those who prefer their information as text anyway, here's an article on a very overlapping topic, which likely gives the same information as the video:
Geothermal Energy with Millimeter Wave or Direct Energy Drilling
The problem:
Today, boreholes of 7 km are probably reliably attainable with state-of-the-art equipment. This can be very expensive and in most places, ground temperature at 7 km is not sufficient to warrant going there for energy.
The proposed solution: drilling boreholes with a maser (radio frequency laser in the millimeter wave spectrum). The gyrotron would likely sit on surface while the waveguide (antenna) is lowered into ground. Meanwhile, vapours would be blown out with compressed air (or maybe nitrogen, if things keep catching fire).
If the company developing it gets the system to work, boreholes deep enough to reach good quality heat would be possible everywhere on Earth, not just handful of places.
It makes good sense in theory, and I hope they get it working. But its benefits won't reach many people for at least a decade or two, so while the folks at Quaise Energy do their thing, I suggest that everyone else continue installing renewables and storage. :)
Maybe I should have mentioned that geothermal is a great sustainable and renewable source of energy (wiki)
Also, I'm a bit confused with the source you linked because it is about geoengineering which I believe is a terrible approach (see links bellow) but this site kinda presents geothermal as part of it. Geothermal energy production is not related to geoengineering/climate engineering, in any way.
I visit Sabine for her physical sciences commentary, because of her qualifications. Sorry to hear she stepped outside of that and offended people. Doesn't invalidate any of what she shared in this episode.