Comments on: Should we be warm and fuzzy on geothermal energy?

By: DDHv

DDHv — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 02:49:10 +0000

Moving to geoexchange for building heating and cooling with heat pumps can be practical. This is in part because summer, when the heat is being put into the ground, is warmer than winter, when it is being taken out of the ground. See “annualized geo solar” or search on (“self heating” and building.) It takes a well designed building to reach zero energy, but even a poorer one can be improved somewhat by this means.

By: john

john — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:39:10 +0000

Speaking of doing the math, has anyone figured out how much heat we can extract before we interfere with the circulation that provides us with our magnatic field?
I know it sounds a little unlikely, but I also remember when the conventional wisdom among environmental engineers was,”The solutuion to pollution is dilution.”
Scale changes things, doesn’t it?

By: isalama

isalama — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 18:11:28 +0000

wow, what a great article. Thanks for taking the time to put that together. I only need to read it 20 more times to comprehend it fully.

By: michael kanellos

michael kanellos — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 16:28:54 +0000

Tom: Mike Kanellos here (fellow contributor)I did a tour of the geothermal companies earlier in the year and have some data on estimating hot spots.

Finding them is the big challenge. You’re looking for heat underground, instead of liquid oil. A much tougher job. As a result, you only strike it in 1 of 10 attempts. That is the real pain point.

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/geothermal-the-promise-and-the-pitlfalls/

And then it takes 5 or 6 wells at $5-8 million a pop to finally get a working one. The upfront capital is murder.