One-third of the United States' greenhouse emissions come from the small island nation of Iceland, thanks to its reliance on clean, renewable energy and its famous hot springs.
The U.S. is the world's single biggest generator of geothermal energy, and some experts believe further development of that sector, including digging deep into the Earth, could help avert catastrophic climate change.
In terms of innovation, funding, interest at all levels of business, and the government, it seems as though geothermal has an upward trajectory at the moment.
Over the next 20 years, we will move into the cost-effective range for geothermal, just like we did with solar, according to a professor.
Geothermal energy, which is derived by using steam heat from underground to generate power, accounts for less than one percent of the U.S. electricity portfolio. The amount of energy produced by wind and solar is not always the same. The cost of tapping can be high in places that need a lot of digging. In 2021, a kilowatt hour of electricity generated by geothermal costs an average of $3,991 in G20 countries, compared to $857 for utility scale solar power and $1,325 for on-shore wind.
The problem may be solved by recent technological advances such as EGS. In places likeIceland, where heat and water are close to the Earth's surface, it has been economical. In an EGS, fluid is injected deep underground and the rock opens up, allowing hot fluid to rise from far below.
In June, the U.S. Department of Energy announced a $165 million investment in geothermal energy research and deployment.
The private sector is trying to get into the business of generating heat. There are a number of geothermal energy startups that have raised millions of dollars. Last month, the oil and gas giant Chevron and Sweden's Baseload Capital formed a partnership to develop geothermal projects in the US. 40 million dollars was invested in Eavor Technologies by the two companies. Hawaiian Electric, the Aloha State's energy utility, unveiled a plan to increase its geothermal generation capacity to help meet its goal of a 70% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
Nobody is interested in solar because it costs too much. The cost of solar has come down as it has gotten bigger.
Iceland's environment minister, Gudlaugur Thr Thrdarson, told Yahoo News that it's unbelievable how Geothermal has gone under the radar. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the rest of Europe has felt the impact of the natural gas price being felt by the rest of Europe, but that has not been the case inIceland.
He said that when the bills in electricity and gas go up, it doesn't affect them.
Thrdarson said that this can be done all over the world. You don't have to be the most active volcanic island in the world.
An agreement to develop the largest geothermal heating plant in the European Union was signed in January of 2022. In a partnership between Orka Energy Holding Ehf and China's state oil and gas company Sinopec, a 385,000-person Chinese county is being converted to rely solely on geothermal for residential heating.
The water in the wells is used to heat the homes. In an area where families used to burn coal for heat, the result has been a dramatic cut in carbon emissions. Orka and Mannvit are building power plants that will be able to produce electricity from geothermal.
Thrdarson said that they can do it in many other places. It is easy to understand. It's just drilling for water.
8% of the electricity produced in California and 10% in Nevada is derived from geothermal sources. In addition to Hawaii, Utah, Oregon and Idaho, there are others. The western states have volcanic activity that brings heat close to the Earth's surface, similar to what happened inIceland, where 27% of the electricity and heating in 90% of homes comes from geothermal. In the eastern half of the U.S., heat tends to be buried deeper in the ground.
Geological advantage is the reason whygeothermal is in the western states. To get to higher temperatures in New York state, you have to drill a lot deeper, and that is expensive.
The technological challenges to drilling deeper are noted by skeptics.
According to Alice Friedemann, author of "Life After Fossil Fuels: A Reality Check on Alternative Energy," you have to remove all the rock from the hole. The more expensive the drilling equipment is, the hotter it gets.
Some energy companies hope to facilitate deeper drilling through EGS, which offers the possibility of a geothermal boom like the way frack has transformed oil and gas production. EGS is called the next frontier for renewable energy deployment by the Department of Energy.
More than 40 enhanced geothermal systems have been built around the world. There are some commercial ones in Germany and France, but at the moment it is more expensive than other resources.
Increased research and development in EGS is expected to bring the cost down over the next decade or so.
In an interview with Yahoo News, a vice president of AltaRock Energy said that geothermal is an "unwanted stepchild" of renewable energy. The marginal cost of electricity from geothermal is more than the other two. When the power utilities look to renewable sources, those are the ones they go to.
Peaker plants burn coal or gas to counterbalance the ups and downs of solar or wind production. That doesn't happen with Geothermal.
Garrison is trying to make geothermal energy cost-competitive by finding cheaper ways of drilling deeper and delivering more electricity production. Altarock is working on a project to bring up water of more than 400 Centigrade from the bottom of a volcano. It would provide far more bang for the buck when piped to the surface if the water reached a state known as "supercritical", at which it flows with the ease of gas but has the energy density of a liquid.
Power plants work better at higher temperatures because they are more efficient at the surface. The input of 400C is going to be twice as efficient as 200C water.
It takes 20,000 to 30,000 feet below ground to bring up hot water in New York. AltaRock is working in a lab with a company called Quaise Energy on using millimeter wave technology to destroy rock.
Experts and industry watchers say the U.S. geothermal energy industry could be on the verge of a boom.
Enhanced Geothermal could be limited in scope. If all of that was developed, it would represent 10% of current U.S. capacity.
Skeptics think that enhanced geothermal systems will have a lot of technical problems. Water escaping into the rock cracks, the need for materials that can endure incredibly high temperatures, and the fact that new techniques that work in one area may not apply everywhere are all included in Friedemann's list.
There are potential political and economic obstacles, such as the objections of nearby residents who may be worried about chemical exposure and earthquakes that could be triggered by injecting liquid into the Earth. The fact that a water intensive process may not be feasible in areas with water scarcity is one of the steep costs that utilities would have to bear.
Friedemann believes that the technology will be too expensive and use too much energy to drill.
Oil and gas companies are becoming more interested in the business. One of the largest drilling companies in the world, Baker Hughes, has formed a partnership with two giants in the independent oil and gas sector to test the feasibility of turning spent natural gas wells into renewable energy facilities.
Oil and gas companies have the technology and know-how to drill deep below the ground.
According to Sarah Jewett, head of strategy at Fervo Energy, huge numbers of wells have been drilled in the US over the last 15 years. The technology can be directly applied to the power source.
The Secretary of Energy was thinking about that when she told oil executives at the December meeting that they needed to shift to geothermal energy.
Granholm told them to drill holes as well. You know where things are. There's a huge opportunity for enhanced Geothermal.
The Holy Grail is to find clean baseload power. There is a search going on for Holy Grail.
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