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Geothermal Power to The People: Forget Iceland, Hot Rocks Are Everywhere [View all]
Geothermal Power to The People: Forget Iceland, Hot Rocks Are Everywhere
By Mark Halper, Contributor
May 29, 2012
When British geologist Ryan Law lined up to meet the Queen in Exeter, England, earlier this month, he did something not everyone would do: He showed her a drill bit....
The Common Man's Geothermal
The concept is called EGS, which stands for engineered geothermal systems, or, according to preference, enhanced geothermal systems. Some people refer to it as “hot dry rocks,” others as “deep geothermal.”
Perhaps an even better name for it would be geothermal power for the rest of us, because it allows you to build utility-scale geothermal electricity and heat stations almost anywhere. Unlike conventional geothermal places — think Iceland — EGS does not require dramatic, bubbling geology full of volcanoes, fault lines, lava and near-surface heat.
...
Rocks Star
“You can do it almost everywhere,” claims Horst Kreuter, CEO of GeoThermal Engineering GmbH, a Karlsruhe, Germany, consulting company that is not affiliated with Law’s firm. “You can do it in sandstone, you can do it volcanic stone, you can do it in any brittle rock.”
In the U.S., a 2007 study by MIT for the U.S. Department of Energy, entitled The Future of Geothermal Energy, concluded that the country has enough EGS potential to theoretically meet 2,000 times its primary energy needs, and that realistically, EGS could contribute 10 percent of its electricity by 2050...
By Mark Halper, Contributor
May 29, 2012
When British geologist Ryan Law lined up to meet the Queen in Exeter, England, earlier this month, he did something not everyone would do: He showed her a drill bit....
The Common Man's Geothermal
The concept is called EGS, which stands for engineered geothermal systems, or, according to preference, enhanced geothermal systems. Some people refer to it as “hot dry rocks,” others as “deep geothermal.”
Perhaps an even better name for it would be geothermal power for the rest of us, because it allows you to build utility-scale geothermal electricity and heat stations almost anywhere. Unlike conventional geothermal places — think Iceland — EGS does not require dramatic, bubbling geology full of volcanoes, fault lines, lava and near-surface heat.
...
Rocks Star
“You can do it almost everywhere,” claims Horst Kreuter, CEO of GeoThermal Engineering GmbH, a Karlsruhe, Germany, consulting company that is not affiliated with Law’s firm. “You can do it in sandstone, you can do it volcanic stone, you can do it in any brittle rock.”
In the U.S., a 2007 study by MIT for the U.S. Department of Energy, entitled The Future of Geothermal Energy, concluded that the country has enough EGS potential to theoretically meet 2,000 times its primary energy needs, and that realistically, EGS could contribute 10 percent of its electricity by 2050...
More at: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/05/geothermal-power-to-the-people-forget-iceland-hot-rocks-are-everywhere?cmpid=WNL-Wednesday-May30-2012
9 replies
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