How about using more geothermal heat to produce electricity.

Mendeli · 18th May 2006, 04:10 AM

It just today hit me in the head. we're burning coal, we're burning wood, we're burning swamp material and we're even using nuclear reactions to produce heat and electricity... when all we would really need to do is look down and find a great source of heat. (edit: ha ha. look even further down than that, you funny guy)

Why isn't there a geothermal powerplant in every mineshaft? Why aren't we digging down more holes to heat our water, get out some steam and produce electricity with no artificial pollution involved.

Let me guess. Money.

Frustrating.

Darat · 18th May 2006, 04:29 AM

Money in the sense that those ways of extracting energy are not economically viable compared to say burning petrochemicals.

Iceland does generate a lot of power via geothermal sources (http://www.energy.rochester.edu/is/reyk/history.htm).

jj · 18th May 2006, 04:39 AM

Geothermal power is problematic in a number of ways. It works best in very unstable areas, where the wells/shafts are both dangerous to make and hard to keep intact. It works best in volcanic areas where the steam that results is likely to be nearly as acid as battery acid. The steam contains water (not superheated), it contains particulates, it's hard on trubines that way, too.

If it's not in a volcanic area, you have to go way, way deep to get any useful thermal gradient.

Deetee · 18th May 2006, 05:03 AM

It would not be economically viable. Geothermal plants come in 2 main categories - those that utilise the heat directly or indirectly to warm spaces such as pools, homes, greenhouses etc or where industrial space heating is needed (eg drying vegetables/fruit), and those that use heated water/steam to generate electricity. Both are expensive to develop and maintain, and cannot always find applications in countries with more readily accessible sources of geothermal energy.
The amount of enthalpy gleaned from UK sources would be too low to utilise in any beneficial way.
This paper details various systems and applications.

Raphael · 18th May 2006, 05:20 AM

EERE: Geothermal Technologies Program Home Page

According to the Geothermal Energy Association
Geothermal accounts for .35% of annual US power generation (2004).As a percentage of total generation Hawaii is highest with 20%, and in terms of total generation California is highest with two and a half megawatts per annum (4.8%).

18th May 2006, 04:10 AM	#1
Mendeli Thinker Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 166	How about using more geothermal heat to produce electricity. It just today hit me in the head. we're burning coal, we're burning wood, we're burning swamp material and we're even using nuclear reactions to produce heat and electricity... when all we would really need to do is look down and find a great source of heat. (edit: ha ha. look even further down than that, you funny guy) Why isn't there a geothermal powerplant in every mineshaft? Why aren't we digging down more holes to heat our water, get out some steam and produce electricity with no artificial pollution involved. Let me guess. Money. Frustrating.
Mendeli Thinker Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 166	__________________ I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok.

18th May 2006, 04:29 AM	#2
Darat Lackey Administrator / JREF Forum Liaison Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: South East, UK Posts: 64,754	Money in the sense that those ways of extracting energy are not economically viable compared to say burning petrochemicals. Iceland does generate a lot of power via geothermal sources (http://www.energy.rochester.edu/is/reyk/history.htm).
	__________________ If it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart? - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1918-2008

18th May 2006, 04:39 AM	#3
jj grumpy old skeptic Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Deep in the rain Posts: 18,499	Geothermal power is problematic in a number of ways. It works best in very unstable areas, where the wells/shafts are both dangerous to make and hard to keep intact. It works best in volcanic areas where the steam that results is likely to be nearly as acid as battery acid. The steam contains water (not superheated), it contains particulates, it's hard on trubines that way, too. If it's not in a volcanic area, you have to go way, way deep to get any useful thermal gradient.
	__________________ The Power to Quit

18th May 2006, 05:03 AM	#4
Deetee Illuminator Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 3,790	It would not be economically viable. Geothermal plants come in 2 main categories - those that utilise the heat directly or indirectly to warm spaces such as pools, homes, greenhouses etc or where industrial space heating is needed (eg drying vegetables/fruit), and those that use heated water/steam to generate electricity. Both are expensive to develop and maintain, and cannot always find applications in countries with more readily accessible sources of geothermal energy. The amount of enthalpy gleaned from UK sources would be too low to utilise in any beneficial way. This paper details various systems and applications.
Deetee Illuminator Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 3,790	__________________ "Reci bobu bob a popu pop." - Tanja "Everything is physics. This does not mean that physics is everything." - Cuddles "The entire practice of homeopathy can be substituted with the advice to "take two aspirins and call me in the morning." - Linda "Homeopathy: I never knew there was so little in it." - BSM

18th May 2006, 05:20 AM	#5
Raphael disheveled cell cluster Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: London, Ontario Posts: 1,786	EERE: Geothermal Technologies Program Home Page According to the Geothermal Energy Association Geothermal accounts for .35% of annual US power generation (2004).As a percentage of total generation Hawaii is highest with 20%, and in terms of total generation California is highest with two and a half megawatts per annum (4.8%).
	__________________