But of course, any news about drilling is ground-breaking news, right?

@brothermine2292

16 күн бұрын

That depends on who or what is being drilled.

@mgancarzjr

16 күн бұрын

Boring though.

@MrAlanCristhian

16 күн бұрын

I don't know why I laugh at this stupid jokes 🤣

@bluetoad2668

16 күн бұрын

I was hoping she'd dig a little deeper

@jbnacive3390

16 күн бұрын

I see what you did there🤣

Closed loop geothermal is the ultimate clean energy, and it is literally right under your feet no matter where you are. I really, really hope it takes off this time.

@absalomdraconis

16 күн бұрын

The main issue is the high up-front cost. As long as people are ok with sizing their wells to run a generator _after_ output falls then I'm confident that it will be a good replacement for nuclear, but first it needs to pay back that initial investment of energy, so it's a long-term investment instead of a short-term one. A whole pile of things like this make me a nuclear supporter: we really just need it for a bandaid.

@SavageOne420

16 күн бұрын

Tell me why when I live next to north America's largest geothermal power plant near the "Geysers complex" in lake county, CA that our local PGE bill is 3x+ higher then national average? And I've heard they sell carbon credits to offset other states production or they sell the power directly to another states 😅🤷

@SavageOne420

16 күн бұрын

The whole complex generates emough power to keep San Francisco running and our local county is a fraction of that population and despite federal grants and carbon credits we pay the higher price

@ManuelGarcia-ww7gj

16 күн бұрын

@@absalomdraconisThe truth be known, geothermal IS nuclear energy. It is the thorium trapped in the crust that generates the heat.

@kayakMike1000

16 күн бұрын

Dude, are you serious? They always say ultimate clean energy, but there's always a trade off. We don't have an effing clue what drilling shite loads of holes in the ground will do. Off shore wind farms? Not only are they an eyesore, they cause shore waters to de-oxygenate ruining aquatic ecosystems, they cause the air to drop speed so cooling and rain down wind drops. Solar farms? So much displaced ecosystems, it's a monoculture without the plants. They get smashed in hailstorms, who cleans that shit up? Morons. The lot of you.

at 2:25 , "They claim that this way they'll be able to drill 20 km. deep in just 100 days". That would be a new record for how deep we have ever drilled. The Kola Superdeep Borehole is only around 12 km. deep, so we are talking almost double the depth. If they manage, it will be truly exciting, but I will believe it when they actually accomplish it.

@absalomdraconis

16 күн бұрын

I suspect that they'll have to install at least one (probably three is better) pressurized sections with plugs to get it to work.

@hardcoreherbivore4730

15 күн бұрын

Don’t forget, the current record holder took two decades to drill.

@paperburn

15 күн бұрын

10 k will work just fine in most cases, I do not know why the 20 K brag. The speed in drilling is the game changer, they say they do not have to change drill bits so it will be that much faster. (75 percent of drilling is pulling and replacing drill head and pipe.)

@DanildFlamme

15 күн бұрын

@@paperburn That's true, it is primarily the economics of it, that is vital. If they can just cheaply drill down to a depth of around 60-70 degrees Celcius, that will already be enough to supply all the heating needs for residential buildings, including hot-water. And even if they can just super-cheaply drill down to maybe 30 degrees Celcius or so, it can be used as a supergood "heat-source" for a heat-pump, that would then be able to run at a very high efficiency, even during cold winters.

@johanlahti84

14 күн бұрын

I assumed the meant drilling say 10 holes 2km deep, not 1 hole 20km deep.

One of the apparent benefits of the microwave drilling is that it melts the rock and creates a heavy glass-like tube around the drill hole. The claim is that this would last for decades. It’s a gamble we should take. The beauty part of the Quaise system is that we could repower any thermal plant; coal, natural gas, or nuclear.

@originalnickname1

16 күн бұрын

How are they going to remove the cuttings? Rock's already pretty dense, are they going to be able to successfully push all those cuttings into the wall? if not, how to get rid of them?

@steveb5972

16 күн бұрын

​@@originalnickname1There are no cuttings with microwave drilling. The rock is vaporized.

@originalnickname1

15 күн бұрын

​@@steveb5972and the glass "filter cake" keeps the formation pressure back? Its cool if it works, but what happens during a well control issue, would be difficult to see signs of a kick, and harder to control when it happens

@davekral7274

13 күн бұрын

They plan to blow a gas down the wave guide to force the vaporized rock out of the hole

@williamstucke5445

11 күн бұрын

@@originalnickname1 See 01:45 for a diagram. They blow Argon (not a cheap gas!) down the centre tube and it carries the rock chips up the outer tube.

My little hometown uses geothermal in their downtown so the sidewalks don't get icy in the winters. Klamath Falls Oregon isn't well known, but geothermal has been a thing there since the 90s, after looking it up I discovered that apparently geothermal has been used there as far back as 1900, mind blowing.

@renaudfilippi2599

16 күн бұрын

Klamath like thé village in Fallout 2 ? Nice .

@swiftycortex

16 күн бұрын

Wow I grew up in Oregon and didn't know about it, but that isn't unusual for a child growing up to not know all of the cool things occurring in their state. Thank you for sharing

@Metalkatt

16 күн бұрын

​@@renaudfilippi2599Fellow Fallout nerd! I was going to mention the same thing. ^_^

@workingclasscook870

16 күн бұрын

@@renaudfilippi2599 yes that's the one, haha

Hi from the side of Menengai Caldera in Nakuru, Kenya. There's a few geothermal for electrical grid projects underway here, something for direct input to cement production and an expansion of the existing Olkaria facility in nearby Naivasha. It's already a significant part of the electricity mix in what is a pretty clean grid.

@Thomas-gk42

15 күн бұрын

Hi from Germany, thank you for sharing!

@mag-icus

15 күн бұрын

Thank you for telling! It feels kind of comforting to hear that Kenya have started going down a route of clean energy, instead of following the same bad route with non-clean energy as the West did. A lot of the growth of energy systems is going to happen in Africa, so getting them right is crucial.

@alst4817

15 күн бұрын

Yep, but sitting on the African Rift is pretty much the jackpot of geothermal energy

I was a planning engineer on two geothermal power facilities, each 100 MW, in Indonesia. When they were commissioned I felt a real sense of pride that I had contributed to “greening the planet”. I hope there will be many more built.

many houses here in sweden use geothermal closed loop heatpumps with compressors to extract the heat. but a simple household hole is only about 200-300 meter deep

@tehehe5929

16 күн бұрын

Yeah en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_source_heat_pump are really popular all over Europe.

@jobicek

15 күн бұрын

Really that deep? In the Czech Republic, bores for home heating are more like 100, maybe 150 meters AFAIK. It's enough to heat a house. Mine are only 50 meters as I use them for cooling in the summer so I don't want the water too warm but I've got four of them situated under the house. The ground under the house acts as an accumulator and I've got a custom air/ ground hybrid so that I can use cheap heat from warm summer air to get hot water and to regenerate the bores using mostly just a circulation pump. Air is routed under the roof so that it gets even hotter, originally devised for removing snow from solar panels in the winter. Anyway, bores this shallow (100-300 meters) are not really geothermal as only about a third of the energy comes from below.

@mag-icus

15 күн бұрын

@@jobicek Sweden is cold, you know. ;-) Also, in densely populated areas all your neighbors already have geothermal pumps so you need to go deeper to counteract the loss of efficiency caused by the heat stolen by those pesky neighbors. :) But sure, 300 m sounds extremely deep.

@jcridge

15 күн бұрын

​@@jobicekwould be very interested in any diagrams or data and how you built your system. It must make sense to trap excess heat in the summer, wherever it is, and using 'cheap' readily available materials to store and insulate it. We don't have the option to put pipes under the house nor a long garden but in all likelihood an insulated sand heat battery connected to a heat pump might do it

@ruyan247

15 күн бұрын

I did mine myself, 2 meters deep as slinky pools. Costs around 4000 Euro all in all. Feeds my 12kW heat pump easily. Clay soil is a must tho. Cooling as well.

This is my favorite baseload option. No real downsides once the kinks are worked out. Small footprint. Constant power with no emissions.

@brothermine2292

16 күн бұрын

No downsides? It will give the mole people a strong incentive to counter-attack.

@IronmanV5

16 күн бұрын

What I like about geothermal is that it's unsubsidized LCOE is almost as cheap as gas combined cycle, cheaper than coal and far cheaper than nuclear right now. That and build time is comparable to gas combined cycle at 5 years.

@echelonrank3927

16 күн бұрын

constant heat emissions might be an issue with this technology. but once we work out how to dump this heat into the atmosphere without increasing global temperatures it will be set to take off.

@sjsomething4936

16 күн бұрын

@@echelonrank3927 a good point! I’m hoping that if used mostly for baseload electricity generation and potentially extracting more heat from it if it’s located somewhere that district heating can be employed, it should have much diminished heat loss. However, your point is still a good one, that solar and wind are much more efficient and cause less heat pollution which is still an important factor.

@CCRoselle

16 күн бұрын

@@brothermine2292 Do not overlook the Terries and Fermies. They will be heartbroken if flooded out!

Geothermal energy is available now. The dream of fusion energy is, has, and always be 30 years in the future.

@alvarorodriguez1592

16 күн бұрын

The problem of geothermal is not the when but the where

@herbieschwartz9246

16 күн бұрын

And , of course the "where" is a three dimensional determination. If drilling, and the installation of geothermal collection infrastructure is simply the application of existing and/or achievable new technologies, then the "where" of geothermal energy broadens to the point that an enormous amount of the world's energy needs can be met with earth's heat.

@sketchiefello9002

16 күн бұрын

china will do it in 5

@Enzoa123

15 күн бұрын

Why always? How do you know?

@herbieschwartz9246

15 күн бұрын

Get back to me 30 years from now and then refute my statement. Otherwise, go ahead and invest a lot of money into one to of the "fusion energy" companies if you have enough engineering background to make that decision, or just feel lucky.

When I first heard of this tech two years ago, (Quaise Energy) I did a deep dive into it and have been talking about this for 2 years on X, but my reach is limited. So glad to see you focus a video on this. I hope the new geothermal gains traction and voices like yours will go a long way toward this. Thank you!

I wish the people and companies pursuing Geothermal well. In 1979 while finishing up a BS in Mechanical Engineering I worked at a Geotech testing facility. We tested permeability of the rock (mostly sandstone from promising geothermal sites). Using different drilling fluids while simulating insitu conditions (hot and high pressure). Standard drilling fluids (Betonite) tended to bake and just plugged up the pores. The potassium based fluids we tested were very good at not restricting flow but were incredibly expensive. Current drilling techonogies were also not up to the downhole conditions. I wrote a paper on what I saw as challenges to Geothermal at that time and tried to point out where more money and research were going to be needed. One professor claimed I was anti-Geothermal. I haven't seen a lot of progress on the laser drilling although it was being tested back in the 1970's. You can blame big fossil if you want but that is not the only problem. Also, I'm not sure about the most recent installations but most existing Geothermal Power Plants are binary cycles meaning that the brine temperature can't really get water to useful steam conditions so the hot brine is used to heat a fluid with a low boiling point (iso-butane was popular and still is). There is some disagreement with how harmful iso-butane leaks are to the environment. Very deep holes will work, if you can afford to get there.

@absalomdraconis

16 күн бұрын

Honestly, I wish people would experiment with rocket drilling more. It seems much more likely to be easy to use than laser-based drilling, and might be more efficient too.

@davidinkster1296

15 күн бұрын

There was a brief resurgence of interest in geothermal about 2000 to 2008 (when it became clear that in Australia it could never compete with solar PV). Several companies investigated drilling into shallow granites (only about 1 to 2 km depth!) and the reason for choosing granites is their inherent radioactivity, which is a source of the heat. The aim was to get to temperatures which didn't necessarily require binary cycle, at depths which were 'easily' accessible with oil-drilling equipment and technology. Although the economics didn't stack up in Australia, there is one useful side-benefit that wasn't included: the possibility of nuclear waste disposal. As I mentioned, most granite is radioactive, and in Australia some is so 'hot' that it would be considered a long-term health risk. So why not drill some holes nearby to take radioactive waste? It's decay will add to the heat input to the system. I know the nuclear engineers will tell me that there isn't really a lot of nuclear waste these days, it can be reprocessed and re-used. True, but there is still some, and it's storage is an ongoing and costly problem. If you are starting to think I'm nuts, here's a suggestion that will confirm it: Drill into the underground nuclear test sites and extract the heat energy, which is 95% still available.

@robdevilee8167

15 күн бұрын

@@davidinkster1296 Nuclear waste contains plutonium, which is very dangerous and shouldn't be used that way. It should be buried forever in a safe location, far away from water that would make it mobile and spread uncontrollably.

Served at Naval Air Station (NAS) Keflavik in 1979-80. The entire NATO base was heated by the hot water heating loop from the local geothermal electric power plant. Wastewater from the power plant formed the Blue Lagoon.

@tvuser9529

16 күн бұрын

This is the loop that was destroyed in the Grindavik lava flow, I believe. But they may have fixed it already for all I know.

@absalomdraconis

16 күн бұрын

​@@tvuser9529: I think that bits of that plumbing have been fixed at least twice since the eruptions started. It's a major power plant, so they don't have much choice.

Alberta is actually one of the best places for geothermal research - already large energy sector presence, lots of experience drilling, and a government open to testing out new techniques

@bartroberts1514

16 күн бұрын

Banned commercially by the Alberta government, though.

@iyziejane

16 күн бұрын

@@bartroberts1514 Good to ban it commercially, natural resource extraction should be nationalized so that all citizens of the region benefit from the profits. It's crazy that middle eastern dictators have been better about sharing oil profits with their citizens than our North American governments have.

@aidancollins1591

16 күн бұрын

@@bartroberts1514 Morons

@TimothyCHenderson

16 күн бұрын

@@bartroberts1514 Wind and solar are "on pause" as well.

@bartroberts1514

16 күн бұрын

@@TimothyCHenderson ROFLOL! Some people will believe anything. "In 2022 wind electricity generation increased by a record 265 TWh (up 14%), reaching more than 2 100 TWh. This was the second highest growth among all renewable power technologies, behind solar PV." -- IEA

Your information on this topic is wonderfully thoughtful and timely. As someone well educated in the field of geology, I have always believed geothermal energy was the redheaded stepchild of energy production.

In the Foundation series, planet Trantor got its energy from the temperature difference between the surface and the nucleus.

@artysanmobile

13 күн бұрын

There will be no access at all to our planet’s ‘nucleus’.

I've been watching Eavor for about 10 years now. Their advantage with a closed loop system is that they have 100% control of the working fluid. All open loop systems have to deal with the chemical soup that comes up out of the hole... a soup that is toxic and corrosive as one can imagine. Also, their working fluid doesn't need the super-critical temperatures water requires so they can operate at much shallower depths and still produce significant power (MW). If I had $10 - $20 million dollars burning a hole in my pocket, this is the outfit I'd go with and really go off grid!

@Geenimetsuri

16 күн бұрын

The issue is drilling and constructing the loop at sufficient depth.

@absalomdraconis

16 күн бұрын

​@@Geenimetsuri: Drilling isn't an issue, it's all in the loop. We've had the drilling tech since the 90s.

@brownro214

16 күн бұрын

You can go off the grid with solar for a whole lot less money.

@jobicek

15 күн бұрын

@@brownro214 Exactly. You could get an oversized solar array, a proper wind turbine and a 1 MWh battery for a fraction of that budget. And it would be an absurd overkill.

@jonaswox

15 күн бұрын

I dont think you understand the part about supercriticality. It mainly affects efficiency - of course that has an indirect effect on what is feasible, but achieving SC is for the purpose of the efficiency properties. Anything where you take a fluid , heat it, and move it, will be many times less efficient than a heat pipe for example. Because the heatpipe uses 1: its easier to move steam , 2: when transitioning to steam, the water gets an extra "power backpack" and can hold relatively more heat per mass. There is a point in the vaporisation process where you dont gain any temperature with more energy, you just gain state transition. So for what qualifies for maybe 3-5 degrees in temperature energy, is just obtained in the transition and temperature is unchanged. Supercritical is the level up from this principle. (Im not a chemist, but I guess you would call vaporization an endothermal reaction) A water cooled system will need a pump. A heatpipe is completely selfsufficient. So the heatpipe is faster, more efficient and almost maintenance free. Water cooling is actually decently efficient, its just that heatpipes are genius. Heatpipes uses the same principle as tatoo'ing. Capillary action. All you really have to do when designing a heatpipe inspired system, is to have a capillary channel to supply the heated area, and then make sure you vapor can "reach" the capillary channel upon condensation.

I guess an advantage of having to change the standard energy generation systems is, is that one finally starts looking more seriously at the many other options that got put aside because they weren't mature technologies and no one wanted to take the R&D risk on them. It wouldn't be surprising if one or two of them actually turned out to be as good ideas, maybe even better then the current to be replaced fossil fuel method , at least if they were developed sufficiently far. So this is a good time to see which alternatives might be good options and to see who can reach the top in energy production this time around.

Finally geothermal is getting the attention it deserves!

THANK YOU! Geothermal is FINALLY getting some attention! Most videos on renewable energy focuses on solar & wind as it's relatively cheap & quick to install (getting a grid connection is another topic altogether!). Geothermal is one renewable tech that isn't intermittent, so a great complement to cheap wind & solar. There a project in the UK at the Eden Project - featured on the Fully Charged Show. It would be great to get an update. Around 70 - 80% of people will live in cities by 2050 so it makes sense to site geothermal close to large urban centres or to use geothermal to run turbines that previously were powered by coal - these power stations are already connected to the grid so no extra transmission & distribution infrastructure is required. Govs captured by the fossil fuel industry have a vested interest in delaying the transition to renewables (going electric will decarbonise about 90% of the economy!). I think they have tried to make the transition as complicated & difficult as possible while ALL the solutions have been available for decades already... But that's okay, it's us "mere mortals" that will pay the price, probably with our lives. But then there are billions of us - 95% of which are quite disposable! Happy days.

@Leo-gi7bg

16 күн бұрын

I've been thinking abut geothermal for years and only seen stuff abt iceland. It's literally unlimited constant energy!

@dissturbbed

16 күн бұрын

Exactly! I don't think my town out in the middle of nowhere could afford a multibillion dollar fusion facility.

@echelonrank3927

16 күн бұрын

but where are they proposing to dump the spent heat from geothermal turbines, into the atmosphere? this is so much worse than solar, i cant believe this option is even on the table.

@CitiesForTheFuture2030

16 күн бұрын

@@echelonrank3927 Thermal recovery for district heating or for industries that require heat - 2 for 1 deal... it gets better & better!

@Leo-gi7bg

16 күн бұрын

@@echelonrank3927 bro, the spent energy from geothermal that is left is far less than that of the complex resources needed for a solar panel. Also if it's a contained system, no steam will come out, so the extra energy will be put in batteries or just run into the ground like how lightning discharges. Also solar takes up a lot of area and has risk of clouds, bad weather and generally a lot of maintenance for being subject to the elements. Geothermal is by far the best form of energy collection, we just don't know how effective since all the good funds for bettering the tech were used for worse cooler sounding options like fusion and solar.

Open loop systems, like those I worked on in Mexico, have the problem of groundwater recharge, or more precisely, the lack thereof. You basically have to pump the water back down the well to prevent depletion of the aquifer and to avoid serious environmental issues. There is also a big issue with corrosion. Feasible closed loop systems appear to be using horizontal drilling technology from the oil and gas business. Similar spinoffs are in places like Saskatchewan where existing fracking sites are being exploited for helium and lithium. I'm very skeptical about a 20km deep well. There aren't many metals that have the appropriate strength required at the proposed temperatures that are a) affordable and b) totally non-reactive. Also, in passing, I note that we're not sitting on a ball of molten anything, except for a few places on Earth where the presence of water and the release of pressure causes melting. Virtually all the crust and mantle are solid. Only the outer core is liquid, and that's a LONG way down.

5:29 well that got..... dark..... Sabine giveth, then taketh away 😅

I agree with you about thermal energy from drilling. Why this isn’t done almost everywhere has always stumped me. The excuses about drilling being too expensive is just that, an excuse. Most holes in the earth are drilled using concepts that would be understood thousands of years ago. Serious R&D would no doubt accelerate the process and bring down the cost substantially. I cannot believe that perfecting fusion energy is less complex than finding a cheaper way to drill holes in the earth.

The Rosemanowes Quarry, in Cornwall hosted the Hot Rocks project, a pioneer in geothermal energy research, way back in the 1970s. Go Kernow.

@stevedowning3892

12 күн бұрын

I live in Falmouth. Be ideal if a geothermal project took off on our doorstep

The term 'geothermal' is used as a blanket description of many different technologies. Different methods of drawing heat energy from the earth. From low energy heat difference engines, circulating water through coils of pipes a few feet underground for cooling in summer and heating in winter - right through to base load electricity generation from 'crustal magma bodies' - it's all just geothermal.

Beautiful weather and my favorite science channel - best way to start the morning.

@Thomas-gk42

16 күн бұрын

It´s evening though 😅. I love, that Sabine´s audience is spread over the whole globe.

@teemukupiainen3684

16 күн бұрын

Beautiful sunset...with good news!

I remember reading about this a few years ago when it came out. The videos of them blasting holes in bassalt with a microwave gun were pretty impressive.

Eavor is literally pronounced "ever". Had a chance to meet them and they are great folks.

The house I live in has a lot of contact with bedrock, so I essentially get free geothermal heating and cooling, it generally stays within the same 10 degrees (61-71), only deviating a slight bit more when below 0 and above 100 (f) (58 - 73)

Geothermal heat vs Geothermal power generation are two separate things due to the pressure and temperature required. Currently, geothermal power generation needs high-pressure steam for steam turbines hence the great depth for drilling, while even the ground source heat pump (few meters down if horizontal orientation) is also called "geothermal". Also potentially, if fracking is causing people nightmares, good luck with this one.

@petesportfolio9062

15 күн бұрын

You don't necessarily need steam. You can use heat exchangers to cause a motor fluid with a lower boiling point to push the turbine, significantly reducing the needed temperatures. Fracking is also a bit misleading in a typical geothermal system - at least here in Nevada. Fracking gets a bad reputation when used for natural gas extraction because of the potential for releasing chemicals into shallow groundwater. Structurally complex geothermal systems are very different geologic settings than the typical natural gas reservoir and don't run into the same contamination issues you see on the news... But it's unlikely the common citizen will ever know the difference, unfortunately.

Thank you so much for putting a spotlight on Eavor! Using super drilling techniques and closed loop is so much more advanced than the others. They should be getting boatloads of money from the Canadian government to rapidly expand, but not so much. Germany the first country to do a full scale one, with Texas right behind.

THANK YOU Sabine for covering this VERY IMPORTANT Topic...! 🙂👍👍

Eavor, a closed loop system, based in Canada, has it's first commercial plant in underway in Germany. I have high hopes they have the system we can use anywhere, no fracking needed.

@absalomdraconis

16 күн бұрын

I don't support the anti-fracking movement (there's a lot of FUD, and even lies, in that movement), but closed-loop geothermal is the way to go. I agree that open-loop is mostly a clumsy attempt to be cheap.

Thank you this I live in the UK and I have been keeping an eye on Iceland geothermal energy.

I’ve been a big fan of Eavor for a couple of years now and I’m watching their German project closely. I also love the irony that they’re taking precision directional drilling tech developed for the oil industry and repurposing it for a great, reliable renewable technology.

What speaks for geothermal energy over fusion is there's actual energy to be gained. What speaks against it is natural difficulties, it's not really likely that you can keep a 20km pipe intact at those pressures and sand/rock/other movements, micro quakes and so on, and it will be incredibly difficult to repair a pipe at 18km depth without starting all over again.

Closed loop could be very big. There are problems with taking water out of the ground, which tend not to be talked about except where geothermal is happening. Rotorua used to have a lot of domestic scale geothermal, until they discovered all the household heating installations were taking water away from the geysers which were what made Rotorua be a town in the first place.

@petesportfolio9062

15 күн бұрын

Most geothermal systems, after learning from mistakes made in the 80s, tend to reinject all of the water back into the ground, essentially making it a closed loop. Household geothermal uses the shallow groundwater, which unfortunately has a direct impact on springs. These are two similar, but different, technologies.

@michaelwright2986

14 күн бұрын

@@petesportfolio9062 Well that's good to know. Do we trust them to reinject the water properly?

@petesportfolio9062

14 күн бұрын

@@michaelwright2986 I guess it depends on which country the plant is built in and their regulations. However, it is in the company's best interest to inject properly, otherwise it's lost money and that would be an inefficient business model.

Are there any issues with a lot of large scale plants removing heat from the core?

@paperburn

15 күн бұрын

yes we will run out of heat in a few billion years 🥴,there is talk of , mico earthquakes if you use open loop system or contamination of water supplies.

@petesportfolio9062

14 күн бұрын

If we suck up all the uranium, thorium, and potassium from the mantle, then we could have some issues. However, that is unlikely to be related to the geothermal energy industry.

@barryon8706

13 күн бұрын

We should have some unusually attractive scientists around, just in case. That always works in the movies.

5:21 I never thought we would be playing catch up to tube worms. You know, the ones that live near geothermal vents.

@blinkingmanchannel

16 күн бұрын

For just a second there, I thought you were talking about the ones that live in RFK jr's brain...

I'm surprised that closed loop geo-thermal is so underutilized. I'd always assumed that there were technical roadblocks preventing it's proliferation.

@petesportfolio9062

14 күн бұрын

It's less about technical barriers and more about regulatory and financial barriers. Geothermal lobbying got bullied out by oil and mining back in the 80s and hasn't recovered yet.

I used to live in New Zealand near Rotorua. Geothermal energy was championed. However, the ground started to cool, and the geysers started to fail. The council cemented many of the equipment down.

@JosefEngelfrost

16 күн бұрын

Do you know how deep those drill holes go? I guess if you drill deeper you can tap out more energy without it cooling.

@malcolmabram2957

16 күн бұрын

@@JosefEngelfrost I do not, but Rotorua is in a hot spot, so I suspect they did not need to go down that deep. Lots of homes had geothermal heating.

@venietvideo

16 күн бұрын

That is a sign of the limitations of geothermal power no one talks about. Yes there are huge reservoirs of thermal energy down there but once you tap them they are replenished very very slowly. The average heat flux from Earth's interior to the surface is less than 0.1 watt/m²! That is why many geothermal projects worldwide became unprofitable and were shut down eventually.

@PaulDriessenFX

15 күн бұрын

@@venietvideo interesting! this might be the reason experimetns in Iceland trie to tap into the lava: molten lava does not have this replenishing problem....

@petesportfolio9062

15 күн бұрын

Rotorua is actually a good example of a system recovering heat after adopting a more responsible extraction and injection strategy.

If we had invested as much in geothermal research and development as we have in fission, we would have solved this problem long ago.

Alberta just announced a research facility for geothermal. Its really one of the ideal places to test since we have so much data available already from decades of oil drilling along with having the equipment local to drill and the qualified workforce to do the drilling.

Thank you for reviewing the full depth of this technology.

Loved Brilliant. Finished LLM and How Technology Works. Will take your course❤🎉

@Thomas-gk42

16 күн бұрын

Question: Is it audio too, and can it be used in different languages?

@Ramkumar-uj9fo

16 күн бұрын

@@Thomas-gk42 No

It'll be interesting to see what side-effects are produced if geothermal starts getting used large-scale. When we first started using hydro-electric, no one was talking about how we could affect the planet's rotation by damming waterways. Makes one wonder if cooling the crust, even minutely, will have an effect on the magnetosphere or something else that we can't even think of... We won't know until we try. The only thing that really worries me is unlike fossil fuels where we can, theoretically, undo what we've done, I don't think there is an easy way to put the heat back into the crust once we've started using geothermal.

@absalomdraconis

16 күн бұрын

Hooking solar-thermal to closed-loop geothermal is an easy way to put the heat back in.

@user-yq2wk6yg8s

16 күн бұрын

@@absalomdraconis "Hooking solar-thermal to closed-loop geothermal is an easy way to put the heat back in." Having difficulty imagining that one. Can you draw us a diagram, please?

@Enzoa123

15 күн бұрын

Using solar to inject heat back into the Earth's core.

@user-yq2wk6yg8s

15 күн бұрын

@@Enzoa123 Sounds like a completely crazy idea to me. Solar has earned a reputation of being "relatively cheap." But that doesn't mean it's economically sensible. It's just cheap compared to the mad practice of extracting and refining fossil carbon into engine fuels and then making the planet into a spagghetti of roads and railways with airports for sauce, whilst indulging ridiculously inappropriate architectural creations so that all the newly mobilized people have something to travel to see. Building large ranges of solar panels over fertile pastures, as they are doing around where I live, to 'inject heat back into the Earth's core' is just piling one bad idea on top of another and selling it as a 'solution'. Far better to think before acting and realise life was better when we didn't have all this crap.

@petesportfolio9062

14 күн бұрын

I wouldn't worry about the crust affecting the magnetosphere, it's just a few dozen kilometers thick compared to the Earth's total 6400km radius (less than 1%). We'd have to cool the liquid core significantly and then we'll end up like Mars... In a few billion years. Most geothermal heat comes from radioactive decay deep in the mantle, so unless we suck up all of the potassium, thorium, and uranium, we should be good to go for some billions of years.

I like the way that you invented the word spin-out. It's a good word. It's usually called a "spinoff" (or "spin-off") - but that's usually applied only to television shows - mostly. I think that you've just invented a very good word - in English. Really.

Your videos are amazing. I watch them daily. Thank you very much!

I think any geothermal systems that aren't closed loop are reckless and dangerous but closed-gloop systems are the most likely way we are going to have to transition our electrical production to

@jwarmstrong

16 күн бұрын

Open loop means mineral filled water that precipitates onto pipes & valves plus has corrosion problems

@pedrolopes3542

16 күн бұрын

@jwarmstrong Reading skills please He said "aren't closed loop" as in "those that are open loop"

@tomjacobson7623

16 күн бұрын

@@pedrolopes3542 Critical thinking skills please. jwarmstrong is simply giving a supporting fact, he's not arguing against what gweebara is saying.

@doggo6517

16 күн бұрын

Skill issue

@seriousmaran9414

16 күн бұрын

My money is on closed gloop option, bound to be a winner.

Geothermal heat pumps are underused tech. They aren't cheap to install, but they pay for themselves after 5-10 years and have lots of other advantages. They're quiet, and work well regardless of the outdoor temperature because ground temperature is constant once you get several feet down.

@Bryan-Hensley

16 күн бұрын

They definitely give you plenty of problems over that ten years. Clogged or mashed buried lines are the biggest issue. Failed water pumps every 4 or 5 years. Failed heat exchangers in 5 years. I own a HVAC company. They aren't paying for themselves around here but we aren't in a Frigid area.

@fwiffo

16 күн бұрын

@@Bryan-Hensley I've had good experiences, but if you work in the field you'd know more than me.

@Bryan-Hensley

16 күн бұрын

@@fwiffo a dual refrigerant system (which hasn't been invented) would work as good. The only reason a normal heat pump starts losing output around 10 degrees f is due to the boiling point temperature of the refrigerant. If it could somehow switch to a lower boiling point refrigerant, it would put out normal output at sub zero temperature.

I do definitely enjoy and appreciate what you are doing and how you appreciate what you do for its honesty and earnestness. I will be subscribing. Thank you. No. It is not too much. In some ways your journey parallels my journey into first history, then folk tales, mythology, drafting, art production, concert production, entrepreneurship, film production, economics then political economy. I know I was simply trying to comprehend what was going on. And of course how that differed from what I had been told was going on. So…. Thank you.

I'm glad to see you finally covered Eavor-loop, but you failed to mention that the closed loop feature allows for these geothermal plants to be located in many more locations than typical geothermal and allows for cold starts amongst other advantages. If this technology works out I see it replacing Fusion. The cost and technological expertise needed are so much lower it's unimaginable.

Geothermal: It's not just for Iceland anymore! When we built our house 20 years ago we put in a closed loop geothermal heat pump system for heating and air conditioning. Four pipe loops, 12 feet apart, extend 100 feet into the ground. They collect heat from or dump heat into the ground where the temperature is a constant 12 degrees (54F). The extra cost was paid for in less than 7 years. It doesn't need to be industrial scale to deliver efficiency and help contain global warming.

@davidellis2021

16 күн бұрын

That's not geothermal energy, or very little of it is. I like heat pumps (I have one) but tagging them as geothermal is marketing rubbish.

@ZrJiri

16 күн бұрын

What you have is more correctly known as ground source heat pump. It's not using geothermal energy, it just exploits the fact that deeper soil doesn't change temperature fast, so it stays at the long term average of surface temperatures.

@GASNICABRUNATNA

16 күн бұрын

Global warming is caused by the sun. Get used to using your brain

@FenixBG

16 күн бұрын

As others pointed out this is not exactly what people refer to as geo-thermal energy but yes, ground heat pumps are very good if you have the space. You either need to dig very deep as you did, which can be very expensive, or you need a lot of garden to lay the needed kms of pipe to heat a house.

@monty3854

16 күн бұрын

​@@ZrJiriI'm obviously not an expert so forgive me. If everyone used these, wouldn't that raise the ground temperature to the point they wouldn't be useful for cooling?

This sounds like a very good idea. 🌋💧💧💧

It was at least two years ago that I heard about the US DOE funding several projects aimed at generating power from depleted oil wells. Some of them are surprisingly deep.

It's good the test site in Utah is already established. There have been several attempts to develop geothermal systems, but they were apparently too close to national parks or reserves and environmental groups were able to block them. These new systems that may work just about anywhere sound like a game changer...finally!

@prasakmanitou4925

15 күн бұрын

Or not... that's the problem with geothermal. Its hard to estimate how economically significant the drill going to be (= difficult to find money in banks). Ask soviets, scandinavians, islanders... how many drills are underperforming straight away or after a few years in service.

Sabine, your jump to educating over pointless research is so much more valuable. If there is a way to make progress in science the focus rather than a coincidence of research what could be done to change this?

@ASpaceOstrich

15 күн бұрын

If possible, I imagine encouraging amateur science to be done at a level that produces useful results would see huge gains.

What’s wrong with a few extra volcanoes?

@brothermine2292

16 күн бұрын

Nothing is wrong with volcanos. It's volcanic eruptions that are problematic.

@AnJean3tte

16 күн бұрын

There are only so many natural mantle plumes . The Earth's vents that are actually the center of volcanos like a pipeline that runs from the top of a volcano all the way through the mantle of the Earth down to the hot molten magma that surrounds her iron core. Drilling is not only expensive, evidently it is not even really possible... so far as I know. I learned they have tried to drill to the core and they have only made it down so far and it got so hot it has melted the drills. The Earth is heating up folks. Not only on the outside. Some mantle plumes aren't all the way up through the surface of the Earth yet, but are definitely started on their way to becoming sufficient ventilation. Can you imagine if we could drill to the top of an unopened plume? Think of a tea kettle whistle... The steam alone I'm sure would be deadly. Still They were sure brave for trying.

@vincentcleaver1925

16 күн бұрын

If we can bring magma up that easily, well, the tech would actually prove out

@AnJean3tte

16 күн бұрын

@@vincentcleaver1925 all of this kind of thing would only further F* up our already broken eco system anyway. Lest we forget & Lets not disappoint eh? lol :)

@BR-hi6yt

16 күн бұрын

Yes, more tourist income.

They did two test drillings in the 2000´s in Switzerland: first near Basel, which they had to stop when a earthquake > 3 happened, then they had another test drilling farther inside Switzerland again with having an earthquake > 3 Comes out that as Africa is pushing Italy north creating the Alps it is not a good idea to drill close to a fold under the river Rhine.

A geothermal company near me, Cornwall UK, are making use of a naturally radio active layer of granite to provide energy.

Anything will help this does sound like a pretty good idea if successful

In before "Just Stop Drill" accuses us of making Earth too cold by stealing the internal heat.

@andra9694

16 күн бұрын

Which is to balance global warming tho

@cyko5950

16 күн бұрын

i mean it would probably make the atmosphere hot since we are releasing heat from the ground

@Bryan-Hensley

16 күн бұрын

Who knows, Mars may have had humans in the past and that's how they "froze" Mar's Internal core.

@Bryan-Hensley

16 күн бұрын

​@@andra9694it would reduce the magnetic field around earth, stripping the atmosphere away. That's what happened to Mars

@G3Kappa

16 күн бұрын

All jokes aside, the amounts of energy we're talking about are so mind-boggingly huge that you will never make a dent in Earth's magnetic field even if you try really hard.

You have a brilliant mind Sabine and I absolutely love it

I thought this for so long, it is a relieve that a person way smarter than sees potential.

I must admit that I am very concerned about geothermal energy. I know that mostly it is my lack of knowledge, but there are two things that worry me. First thing is the open-loop system, where it can lead to a great pollution and contamination of underground water. We all know that things like these are not perfect and we humans are less so. When you hear that a fossil-fuel company is joining in, that just adds up to my concerns. Second thing is that when we use geothermal energy, we are in fact cooling down the Earth's core. However little our consumption is at the beginning, if this takes of, it will be more and more. And you need to calculate in all the energy that will escape, not just the one that we will manage to use. Again, looking into the past, I would expect that a lot of energy will be lost. How much energy we can use until we get to the point that this will affect Earth's magnetic field and how will that affect life on the planet? How long till Earth's magnetic field provides less protection from the Sun? I know this looks insignificant now, but how does this scale? First people burning coal certainly didn't think that it will eventually trigger a global warming...

@bartroberts1514

16 күн бұрын

I can't help you with misgivings about open-loop, roughly equivalent to fracking in its implications. I can't help you with misgivings about fossil companies getting involved. However, cooling the Earth's core, I can help out. All of the heat in the Earth's core is so great compared to human ability to tap it with geothermal generation that we need not worry very much, especially since that heat is replenished by natural fission. By itself that's not much of an argument. That this heat would have come to the surface eventually, too is only part of the solution; it is coming out at a higher rate. However, the heat of this geothermal emission is a rounding error compared to the heat of GHGs. For every unit of energy obtained by burning carbon, GHGs resulting from that burning produce over ten thousand times that heat eventually through the greenhouse effect. So a four order of magnitude improvement comes from shifting away from fossil and to geothermal.

@user-yq2wk6yg8s

16 күн бұрын

@@bartroberts1514 "For every unit of energy obtained by burning carbon, GHGs resulting from that burning produce over ten thousand times that heat eventually through the greenhouse effect." That's a rather astonishing statement. Can you suggest any places I can get confirmation of the figures?

@bartroberts1514

16 күн бұрын

@@user-yq2wk6yg8s von Schuckmann, K., et al: Heat stored in the Earth system 1960-2020: where does the energy go?, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 1675-1709, essd-15-1675-2023, 2023. I'd also recommend the IPCC, or the writings of Dr. Richard Alley, as a start. It's important to note, GHE is slightly logarithmic, though that relationship varies with conditions, somewhere between 3.0 and 5.0 degrees C warming per doubling CO2 concentration. Note that this is a "with amplification" or "with positive feedback" effect: CO2 itself only directly causes about 10% of the warming that results; water vapor increase in volume and concentration resulting from that 10% rise causes ten times the warming, and then the whole loops until something like 5 C degrees warming results, before it tapers. Because the CO2 stays in the atmosphere somewhere between 200 and 80,000 years, that is of course spread out. No one is claiming the atmosphere will become 10,000 times hotter than a coal furnace all at once. And of course all coal operations leak methane, which itself is many times more GHE-intensive than coal. The topics to look at are GWP and GTP (Global Warming vs Thermal Potential). To check back of the envelope: On average, one tonne of coal can produce approximately 24 to 25 million BTUs (British thermal units) of heat energy when burned. This can also be expressed as approximately 25 to 26 gigajoules (GJ) per tonne. On average, burning 1 tonne of coal can release approximately 2.86 metric tonnes (2860 kilograms) of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. This value is based on the typical carbon content of coal, which is around 70%. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the radiative forcing caused by a doubling of CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere (from pre-industrial levels) is estimated to be around 3.7 watts per square meter (W/m^2). Earth's cross-sectional area is ~5 x 10^14 m^2. That's ~5 x 10^14 times 3.7 Watts. Over the lifetime of the doubled concentration, that'd be almost 5 x10^27 kWh. There are about 17 x 10^12 tonnes of CO2 in the atmosphere, so dividing out we obtain 10,941 Joules from the Greenhouse Effect for every Joule from burning coal. I'd round to four orders of magnitude, as uncertainties are large.

@petesportfolio9062

14 күн бұрын

I can help with your misgivings about open loop systems. Geothermal reservoirs are distinct from and do not communicate with shallow groundwater aquifers. There are thousands of feet of impermeable rock in between the two fluid regions. Also the worst case scenario is some extra salinity - nothing toxic.

@user-yq2wk6yg8s

14 күн бұрын

@@petesportfolio9062 We might need those reservoirs to drink one day soon, given what we're doing to what's left of the more accessible ones.

Geothermal energy is amazingly and I hope it gets utilised more in the future.

My neighbor (Rural NW Ohio) put one of those geothermal heat systems, years back. On that map, we not a hot spot, either. I reckon it works fine, just a relatively complex system (lots of expensive break-y parts? Lol).

Any building with deep basements (for underground parking) and/or foundation piles can be designed to utilize similar principles for saving heating and cooling energy. This approach falls within a well-established field of engineering and does not require any additional R&D. It simply requires a willingness from real estate developers and builders to look beyond short-term profits.

Love the volcano humor coming out of left field when you least expect it. Bravo!

@freedomandguns3231

16 күн бұрын

I erupted with laughter

In Belgium, the Vito research institute is looking into this too. But cheap gas and expensive drilling are somewhat of an economical restriction. And risks of earthquakes too…

@user-yq2wk6yg8s

16 күн бұрын

Don't forget the worldwide shortage of clean water.

I really like the closed loop idea, this fixes the downside if conventional geothermal where it still releases both air and water pollutants.

@petesportfolio9062

14 күн бұрын

Good luck fixing a cracked pipe down there. Conventional geothermal doesn't release air and water pollutants anymore (at least the newer binary plants). All water is reinjected at depth and is never exposed to the atmosphere.

Geothermal energy is excellent for heating buildings, the university of Delft is implementing such a system right now for the campus to replace the natural gas system

In my opinion, the best argument for stopping oil burning is so as to save it for later use as petrochemical feedstock

@Aureonw

16 күн бұрын

Use it as emergency energy should current society fall so that we have a easily extractable energy source, otherwise use it only for production of plastics and roads

@dwwolf4636

16 күн бұрын

Not sure if that's actually financially viable.

@Aureonw

16 күн бұрын

@@dwwolf4636 Financialy viable this financialy viable that, bro just develop spaceships get into space make dart programs and get rare resourch rich asteroids steer or orbit Earth 😐 money becomes near useless once vast ammounts of easily acessable resources are avaible, a society that advanced develops into a energy based economy or a UBI utopic society where one can make further credits by selling entertainment and aiding progress technology and in general diving further in their hobbies

@Aureonw

16 күн бұрын

@@dwwolf4636 The idea of financialy viable literally is destroying the world right now due to how "cheap" coal and oil are. While more than 2 million people die every year due to air polution problems

@tordsgaming2740

15 күн бұрын

@@Aureonw the answer is not removing it completely but reducing usage and allow new or improve upon "older" ideas like geothermal. petrolium is still needed for a vast veriety of other products.

Shallow bore geothermal closed loop can also be worth while for public & industrial buildings ie circa between 100 to 300 meters, where there are aquifers. You don’t have to go large strategic power production. These have been used in individual house heating.

@jefflittle8913

16 күн бұрын

Can geothermal energy be a good fit for desalinization?

@timhaldane7588

16 күн бұрын

Yeah, but who wants to have a shallow bore around all the time?

@user-yq2wk6yg8s

16 күн бұрын

Every time I hear the word aquifers in the context of engineering infrastructure I shake my head in disbelief at the carelessness of humans for looking after their own essential natural resources.

@robertjohnsontaylor3187

16 күн бұрын

@@user-yq2wk6yg8s there is nothing wrong with exploiting an aquifer by only removing its heat, or for storing heat, this heat can only be used for warming or cooling buildings not generating electricity, unless a Stirling engine can be employed, but even then water is not extracted.

@paperburn

15 күн бұрын

@@jefflittle8913 yes

Interesting stuff. I wasn't aware of these advances.

I'd like to imagine Sabine in different silly hats every time there's a thematic to a thumbnail, like now with a hardhat and a hand drill

Unlike solar and wind, geothermal energy flow can be maintained regardless of the immediate environmental conditions and thus obviates the need for energy storage systems.👍

My father worked with the US geological service and the DOE on a geothermal project in Louisiana. They found they got more energy out of the dissolved natural gas in the water that came up then the water had in it per unit volume. At the time it wasn't economical to pump the wastewater back down into the Wilcox formation it came out of. And the wastewater was too troublesome even by middle 1970 standards to just discharge. There is already been over 100 years of drilling. There are at least a hundred thousand abandoned gas and oil wells in the continental US that have close to 100° c temperature differential between their tops and bottoms, that just is not enough to make them economical sources of power. I guess we're waiting for someone to discover how to economically use r290 in Wells.

Very promising tech. Thanks for helping spread the word on what shouldn't be such a niche topic!

I heard last year that Canada has a company with a really good way of doing geothermal. I forget the name. They already have a POC and working on a bigger POC too. Oh I spoke too soon. Sabine mentioned them; company Eavor. Beginning construction of first commercial site in Munich Germany. 👍💪

New conspiracy theory just dropped: Sabine is actually an extraterrestrial, and her whole channel is a long-term plan to gradually accustom people to the idea of benevolent aliens coming to save us from ourselves. The reason she's so skeptical of a lot of modern physics is that she knows for a fact it's been conclusively disproven!

@Ken-rq9xr

12 күн бұрын

She's just extra special.❤️🤓😽🦜🧬

@assburgers3457

9 күн бұрын

This would make me identify with her positions more, I think.

This works for shallower wells too. Just need steam to gen electricity. If plasma drilling or any other method can be cheap enough, everybody can have their own well and we can stop using grids. (Every technology ever developed gets distributed as soon as it works well. My fave is water wheels with long drive shafts spanning the factory ceiling to drop belts to each spindle.) I love these ideas. What if it works?! Best of all: once it works, what fun unexpected applications will arise?!?! Also, does rotation slow as we cool the interior? By how much? Does it affect gravity? 😎☕️

@Aureonw

16 күн бұрын

It affects the magnectic field of Earth but only noticeable with ultra large scale operations for centuries

@absalomdraconis

16 күн бұрын

The grid isn't going away, because expecting people to maintain their personal systems is worse than the grid.

@blinkingmanchannel

16 күн бұрын

@@absalomdraconis ​​⁠​​⁠I'll bet you're right! I always forget about that. Surely people will do neighborhood or community power, if it's cheaper, no? I guess that's a new business model too, maybe. Like a gas station but to power ...just 100 houses at a time, or an apartment complex, etc...

Thank you Sabine for the excellent review of current geothermal tech...very exciting stuff! Of course, as with other next-energy techs, the investments will still need to be made and unless the cost per kWh can compete with fossil energy, we will need either sufficiently higher energy utilization eta to compensate higher cost per kWh, or taxation of fossil fuels/subsidization of geothermal to level the cost per kWh. If we keep waiting for geothermal or other sustainable energy to be competitive on its own, we may be waiting too long (Sower's Paradox).

You, Sabine, and I... I've been trying to convince people that geo is the way to go... but as you said, technical problems AND easier ways to get energy have come as the winners.. FOR NOW... Cheers

Dear Americans. What you (particularly your HVAC merchants) often call (incorrectly) geothermal, is actually just ground-source heat-pump, as compared to the more common air-source heat-pump. Both of which are ultimately sun-powered. Actual geothermal only uses energy that is inherent in our planet, and nothing to do with the giant fusion ball in the sky. Apologies. Rant almost over. It just drives me crazy that more and more people are confused and think that the heat they get from 6' below grass level comes from molten rocks and not just summer sun heating dirt, because marketing.

@frequentlycynical642

16 күн бұрын

I'm one of the not at all confused by I do think of ground loop heat pump as geothermal in a broad sense of the word. And, of course, "real" geothermal doesn't give any advantage for cooling. But yes, caution in the public sphere.

@ispq

6 күн бұрын

You know the largest geo-thermal field in the world, in terms of energy production, with power generated from steam driving turbines, is in the United States of America, less than 30 minutes from where I am right now. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Geysers

@Juttutin

6 күн бұрын

@@ispq Then I guess this misuse of the term by your countryfolk probably annoys you as much as it does me?

Lucky to hear, that there´s movement, you have reported about this several times, recently about the Iceland projects to get water supercritical. Most of your reports were quite sceptical. One problem, you mentioned was that those deep drillings are a potential source of natural CO2 emmissions. I wonder, if that can be solved.

@davidblahota5655

16 күн бұрын

Not drilling? Releasing co2 kinda defeats the purpose of drilling to get heat

@Thomas-gk42

16 күн бұрын

@@davidblahota5655 yes, but perhaps it´s possible to seal it up. Needs more research, I think.

@ZrJiri

16 күн бұрын

Still better than drilling to pull out methane deliberately tho.

@davidblahota5655

16 күн бұрын

​@@Thomas-gk42one way to seal a hole is not drilling it 🫠

@Thomas-gk42

16 күн бұрын

@@ZrJiri you´re totally right!

Great video thank you. 🏆

I'm in hvac and my instructor was telling me about geothermal heating and air conditioning. Pretty crazy, you can use the earth itself to heat and cool your home lol

There were geothermal projects near Strasbourg, on the French/German border. But, for the same kind of reasons as fracking, it caused small earthquakes (magnitude 3 to 4) in a quite dense population center, which forced the authorities to shut the project down due to massive complaints. And after that kind of publicity, people are less enthusiastic about geothermal energy in general

@tortenschachtel9498

16 күн бұрын

Closed loop systems _should_ solve that issue.

Why end with speculating that thermal will leave wind and solar “in the dust”? Its pretty obvious that different sites has different advantages and the right MIX is the panacea, not a single source.

@BriBCG

16 күн бұрын

Geothermal has more potential to become cheaper, more reliable and able to be deployed in more areas while wind and solar don't have a huge potential for advancement. That doesn't necessarily mean it will, but maybe!

I glad you are interested in geothermal energy as it has been my favourite for some time now. The last video I watched about it said that the cost of drilling these deep holes was far too high to be feasible so it's encouraging to see you in support.

@absalomdraconis

16 күн бұрын

The cost can be subsidized. The real issue is the _energy_ for the drilling, which basically just means that wells should be sized large enough to power a turbine even after they've gone through a productivity drop-off. Geothermal is a category of power production that greatly benefits from very-long operational lifetimes.

Please more about geothermal energy! 👍👍👍 Thankyou!

If today we suddenly had 100x as much energy available, it wouldn't take ten years before our infrastructure was completely dependent on it. It is mind boggling that anyone could think anything will "solve our energy problems." Our usage always grows to quickly use up whatever is available. We'd have flying houses and everyone would be driving battleship-sized flying cars, or it would all be used for crypto mining.

@grindupBaker

16 күн бұрын

If you build it they will come.

@Steve-xh3by

16 күн бұрын

Jevon's paradox.

@MemeMarine

16 күн бұрын

And life would be better if you had a battleship-sized flying car, no?

@LiftPizzas

15 күн бұрын

@@MemeMarine LOL I'm not saying it wouldn't. The point is humans find a way to use (and then quickly need) every watt of it, even if by today's standards it seems wasteful.

@LiftPizzas

15 күн бұрын

@@Steve-xh3by Thank you. I was today years old when I heard of this. Good to know that other people know this "solve our energy problems" thing is nonsense.

There have been multiple attempts at high temperature geothemal power plants - both open and closed loop. Major issues have been that the open loop systems (using natural hot water or steam) tends to contain a lot of dissolved minerals as well as being very corrosive such that it plugs up and corrodes the piping and equipment. One plant that a Coworker of mine used to work at had sulfuric acid puddles everywhere - and everyone had to wear full chemical protection suits for almost all maintenance jobs. Extraordinarily expensive to operate and maintain. Closed loop systems have not worked well as you have to have piping and welds that stand up to the very hot and often corrosive ground the pipes are buried in and that are long term reliable enough to not leak or break. Things go downhill rapidly once a circulating pipe or tube leaks or breaks. While I wish the startups well... I have not heard of any breakthroughs that address these two issues. Use of lower temperature geothermal is easy with well proven technologies. Should I build a new house it will be geothermal heated and cooled.

hey there was an extremely interesting part in the video you kinda just glossed over that i want more in depth on and am begging for you to do a video on. you mentioned all supercritical wells dug so far have collapsed. quaise is saying their magnetron drilling process petrifies the inner wall of the bore hole as its drilling into a really strong ceramic that could support the bore hole. would love to hear your thoughts on that. it seems like this is the only big hurdle in geothermal drilling yet to be solved.

Geothermal is for sure worth trying, but sometimes I read about projects claiming gigawatts of power using old oil survey wells and reservoirs having only warm water. It doesn't add up

I'm being simplistic, but sucking energy out of potential super volcanoes seems like a good idea. Small geothermal plants at Yellowstone, and in Iceland, may already be testing this idea.

@alessandroledda6480

16 күн бұрын

i'm not even gonna bother doing any calculations, there is no way that that's gonna have any noticeable impact on volvanoes activities Right?

@ZrJiri

16 күн бұрын

Yeah, I think that would be like taking drops out of a bucket. It would be great for energy generation, but there's no way it would have any effect on eruption risks.

@brothermine2292

16 күн бұрын

On the other hand, cracking the rock dome to allow magma pressure to be relieved by many relatively minor volcanic eruptions might prevent a super eruption.

@ZrJiri

16 күн бұрын

@@brothermine2292 Or it might cause one just big enough to destroy a lot of property, while the risks of "supereruption" are considered almost non-existent.

@brothermine2292

16 күн бұрын

>ZrJiri : The USGS faq about Yellowstone doesn't mention any risk associated with drilling to relieve the pressure. It just says that would be ineffective because the drill hole would quickly be sealed.

I think geothermal is a great solution and a long term one at that. My only one worry would be that if we fully developed it, people might not through as much research into fusion. Geothermal in theory solves our CO2 problem, but fusion gives us the stars.

@johnburn8031

16 күн бұрын

If anything, I think fusion is a distraction from practical solutions like geothermal.

@davestagner

16 күн бұрын

The stars aren’t going anywhere, but the atmosphere is currently going to hell. We need to solve the CO2 problem and stabilize the climate before we do much of anything else. :( On the other hand, once we have a truly sustainable global economy, we will be able to go after truly big things like interstellar travel.

@brothermine2292

16 күн бұрын

Use abundant geothermal energy to produce antimatter?

@diamondvideos1061

16 күн бұрын

@@johnburn8031 Ideally we'd do both.

@skorpiongod

16 күн бұрын

We will always have that need for fusion, but geothermal and fission are excellent bridges. After all, we can't use geothermal to power the colony fleets!

Thanks!

A separate video on Eavor would be great I think!