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]]>When we talk about the demand for energy resources, geothermal is the orphan in a family of technologies that include thermal, hydroelectric, solar, wind, nuclear, wave and tidal power. It shouldn’t be.
What is the geothermal energy potential of our planet?
The International Energy Agency estimates that geothermal capacity to power humanity, if exploited, would exceed present energy demand by a factor of 150. That’s right! The energy potential of using heat coming from below ground represents an enormous energy well to exploit to meet global electricity demand.
So why isn’t it in every conversation when we talk about tapping into the energy potential of
Earth?
Why aren’t the fossil fuel companies that explore for oil and natural gas taking the technologies they use for the job and applying them to harvesting the geothermal energy beneath our feet?
Global figures show 835 geothermal power plants operating today in 50 countries with 16.6 GW of operating capacity and 14.3 GW of prospective capacity. Three different technologies are currently in use:
A recent Peter Diamandis Metatrends newsletter discussed two leading-edge geothermal companies that he describes as transitional and that may propel this power-generation technology into a mainstream energy resource.
The two companies are Fervo Energy and Quaise.
A recent 21-day drilling project reached a depth of 5,928 metres (19,448 feet), and included lateral drilling of 2,286 metres (7,500 feet). Lateral drill fracking extends the search range for substantial underground heat sources with sustainable runtimes. If the tapped heat sources reach 238°C (460°F), well above the boiling point of water, they can be used to generate power. Fervo’s current project is designed to produce 400 MwH of continuous power. The question is: For how long?
Fervo is using fossil-fuel-industry-standard drilling technology to reach deep underground heat reservoirs. The technology involves inserting pipes into these drilled holes and injecting water. The water gets superheated and returns to the surface as steam, where it can power turbines connected to generators. Again, Fervo’s above-ground technology is similar to what gets used to generate power in thermoelectric power stations that are fuelled by coal or natural gas. The big difference is: no carbon emissions. Instead, you have a geothermal energy factory that operates 24/7.
The caveat for Fervo’s approach is this. The drilling method deployed, along with fracking, can negatively impact the heated rock source, reducing the facility’s effectiveness. Maintaining consistent underground temperatures or enthalpy, therefore, is critical. Injecting water can reduce underground rock temperatures faster than natural sources can restore the heat. Drilling and fracking can expose an underground heat zone to a sudden influx of cool water. Thermal drawdowns reduce the running life of geothermal projects.
For Fervo to rise to an industry lead, it must demonstrate consistent results from drilling and fracture operations that produce long-term stability, power production, optimal water management, and limited thermal drawdown.
In his comments about Fervo in Metatrends, Peter states that the company’s model could become a practical power solution for much of the western half of the United States where geothermal capacity appears to be significant.
Quaise is a more unconventional choice in the geothermal energy race. In July 2026, it announced two drilling project site successes, reaching depths beyond 5,000 metres (over 16,400 feet). One project is in Texas and another in Oregon. This is a depth well beyond the capability and economic viability of the technology Fervo is deploying.
What is it? MilliMetre-Wave (MMW) drilling is a technology adapted from fusion energy research. It uses high-power radio frequency (RF) transmissions and next-generation magnets to create deep and stable boreholes. Instead of grinding through thousands of metres of dense rock, its high-frequency waves heat and fracture it.
MMW is rated to achieve drilling depths of 15,000 metres (over 49,000 feet). That far below the surface, the potential to harvest heat with limited thermal drawdown expands exponentially. That’s because of the planet’s geothermal gradient, rising 15 to 30°C (27 to 54°F) per kilometre. At 10,000 metres, average temperatures within Earth’s crust reach 250°C (450°F) warmer than at the surface.
Quaise is targeting the deeper potential for reliable geothermal energy production. A recent study indicates that a well of sufficient depth would produce several times the output of a conventional geothermal power site. The unknowns remain because of the great depth of these projects and the reliability of MMW technology to deliver. Can the borehole remain clear to the great depth as rock gets vaporized to ensure a continuous source of geothermal heat?
For Quaise, these are early days. It will be interesting to follow the company’s upcoming borehole tests.
In Metatrends, Peter notes that geothermal power plants need to perfect heat exchange technologies. He notes that drilling to find hot rock doesn’t automatically mean you can produce electricity. He states:
“The reservoir must allow water to contact enough rock surface area, while maintaining flow between injection and production wells. If fractures are too tight, output is low; if they are too open, water may short-circuit through the reservoir and return before absorbing much heat. Excessive stimulation can also increase seismic risk or cause fluid losses.”
A Stanford University study identified the challenges the geothermal industry faces, noting the need for reliable and durable heat exchange technology and durable well construction that produces an infrastructure capable of operating for decades. The study noted that the geothermal loop that injected water into the ground and then carried the heated liquid back to the surface was inherently vulnerable to structural weakening, corrosion, scaling, erosion and stresses from the changing thermal gradient during operations.
So the jury remains out on these two geothermal players. What’s good about the industry, however, is that there are more players to look at. We will do just that in future articles posted to this site. Expect to learn about Sage Geosystems, XGS Energy, Eavor Technologies, Ormat Technologies, Calpine Corporation, Enel Green Power, Kengen, Pertamina Geothermal Energy, Star Energy Geothermal, Zorlu Enerji and more.
Don’t blink in this century because you may miss the technology express train hurtling us toward 2100. Geothermal advances will be on that train as global energy demand escalates as we look for new ways to meet future expectations.
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]]>How can this come about? A Houston-based company, Quaise Energy, founded in 2018, has been developing a gyrotron-powered drilling platform that bores through rock to access heat deep inside the Earth. It can use the existing fossil fuel infrastructure and conventional rotary drills of the fossil fuel industry, combined with its high-power millimetre wave drilling technology, to reach Earth’s internal heat as deep as 20 kilometres (12 miles) underground, where temperatures reach 500 degrees Celsius (932 degrees Fahrenheit). The ability to instantly create a workforce already skilled in drilling for oil and gas is a bonus that gives geothermal energy projects primacy going forward.
CEO of Quaise, Carlos Araque, told reporters at the first demonstration site of its hybrid drill technology, “Geothermal energy is available everywhere on massive scales. If you take all fossil, all nuclear, and all other forms of renewable energy combined, they’re not even a millionth of a millionth of the thermal stores of energy. It’s mind-boggling, and to get it, we only have to go down two to twelve miles. That’s how close we are to infinite clean energy, no matter where you are in the world.”
Not only can geothermal use the existing expertise and infrastructure from the fossil fuel industry, but it also provides an energy source with a tiny footprint. Unlike wind and solar energy farms, a geothermal site would be no bigger than a few hectares.
The technology has come from 15 years of research done at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). I wrote about the research being done at MIT into millimetre wave drilling technology three years ago, a technology that has existed for 70 years, coming from research into nuclear fusion. Gyrotrons are similar to lasers but use an entirely different range of frequencies.
The initial tests at MIT and later at Quaise bored holes 5 centimetres wide and 5 centimetres deep. Since then, the bore holes have been getting wider and deeper. In May, at the demo for press and investors, the millimetre-wave demonstration bored a 3 metre (10-foot) hole. The following week, Quaise drilled three times deeper, and then a week later, four times deeper using no more than 100 kilowatts of power, equivalent to the energy required to drive a single car.
Next month, Quaise plans to drill multiple 130-metre (425-foot) holes in a granite outcrop at Marble Falls, Texas. By 2026, the plan is for Quaise to complete its design and build of the world’s first superhot geothermal power plant, and have it operational, generating 100 Megawatts of thermal energy harvested from a small group of drilled wells. By 2028, the company’s goal is to convert its first fossil-fuel thermal power plant into one repowered using geothermal heat. The likely first site will be in Oregon, with its known geothermal properties having been a test site for others doing research into this energy source.
In a paper presented at a conference at Stanford University in 2024, Trenton T. Cladouhos, a goethermal scientist, stated that “just 2% of the thermal energy stored in hot rock 3 to 10 km [2 to 12 miles] below the continental U.S.” would be “equivalent to 2,000 times the primary U.S. energy consumption. By developing these resources, clean, firm, renewable geothermal power becomes possible virtually anywhere.”
Where can you find hot rock sources? In the paper that Cladouhos co-authored, an accompanying map reproduced below shows the current mapping of superhot geothermal potential sites.
The advantages that geothermal brings to the energy demand equation are many:
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]]>But volcanoes aren’t necessary to use the heat from below ground to generate power. The estimated 32 Gigawatts (GwH) of geothermal power expected to be in place globally by 2030 largely will come from non-volcanic sources. Although 32 GwH sounds impressive, it’s a drop in the ocean compared to present human electrical energy demands.
How can we harvest heat from the Earth to power the planet and not rely just on volcanoes? A company in Alberta, Canada, believes it has the answer. Eavor Technologies is currently developing a geothermal demonstration powerplant near Rocky Mountain House, a town of 7,000, northwest of Calgary. There are no volcanoes in the neighbourhood.
The Eavor-Loop is a proprietary invention, a closed-loop geothermal technology that circulates a fluid the company developed in what is in effect an underground radiator. Think about how the radiator in a gas-powered vehicle works. It circulates water in a closed loop that removes heat from the engine.
Eavor’s technology doesn’t use water but extracts stored underground heat from two joined wells several kilometres apart and a series of parallel wellbores that feed into the vertical structures. The Loop forms a giant U-shape (see image above) with tendrils hanging to the side and near the bottom. The Derek Riddel Eavor-Lite Demonstration Facility being finished at Rocky Mountain House costs $10 million CDN and is a full-scale prototype system designed to generate electricity and heat for the town’s homes and local greenhouses.
An Eavor-Loop can be used almost anywhere unlike other geothermal technologies. It can be small or large. No external pump is required to circulate its proprietary liquid which remains enclosed within the system. The heat transferred to the liquid rises to the surface where it is harvested either as direct heat or to spin a turbine attached to a generator. The company envisions a typical installation to have the capacity to produce enough energy to light and heat 16,000 homes.
Eavor-Lite is to be succeeded by Eavor-Deep, a next-generation geothermal technology that demonstrates the company’s proprietary drilling technology capable of harvesting heat from far deeper underground. The demonstration site located in New Mexico is harvesting heat from 5,480 metres (18,000 feet) underground where temperatures are 250 Celsius (482 Fahrenheit). The Eavor-Loop at Eavor-Deep resembles the technology deployed at the Eavor-Lite demonstration site and should be widely deployable. In its simplicity of design, Eavor should prove to be the game-changer it purports to be for geothermal energy.
After the Rocky Mountain House site goes live, the company has a dozen sites in the hopper ready to be built in Canada and around the world.
Besides being a closed-loop system that uses a benign fluid and therefore cannot harm the environment by seeping into surrounding underground water sources, it is the size of the footprint that makes the Eavor-Loop technology so attractive. The footprint is tiny and outperforms solar and wind per GwH per hectare.
John Redfern, President and CEO of the company told the CBC “It’s something that you can implement across 80% of the world instead of 5%…like traditional geothermal.”
In other ways is the Eavor-Loop competitive? Is the electricity it generates cost-competitive with other renewables or with nuclear and fossil-fuel-generated power? Initially, the cost per GwH will be higher than other types of renewables and lower than electricity generated by nuclear or fossil-fuel power plants.
For the former, the tradeoff comes with a small footprint when compared to windfarms and solar arrays, or the dimensions of hydroelectric power sites. An Eavor-Loop allows the areas around it to serve other land use purposes.
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]]>Japan sits on the Ring of Fire that encircles the Pacific Ocean. With more than 100 active volcanoes, its geothermal energy potential is estimated to be 23 Gigawatts, or the equivalent of 23, 1-gigawatt nuclear power plants. But despite this potential, only 0.3% of the electricity generated in Japan comes from geothermal sources. This untapped potential seems weird when you consider that Japan has limited fossil fuel resources to burn in thermal power plants, and since Fukushima, has expressed a wariness about future nuclear power plant builds.
But according to Project Drawdown, a site whose mission is to help the world stop climate change by promoting science-based climate solutions and strategies, unlike in Japan, geothermal is starting to heat up.
Geothermal energy takes advantage of the interior heat of our planet by tapping into it. Geothermal power plants come in various flavours including natural and human-enhanced systems such as:
All of the above involves going deep into the ground where temperatures can vary from just above the boiling point of water at 100 Celsius (212 Fahrenheit) to as high as 370 Celsius (700 Fahrenheit).
But other forms of geothermal energy directly tap into much shallower sources to provide direct heating of buildings, greenhouses and other facilities. These include home geothermal heat pump systems that leverage heat from the ground tapped at depths as little as one metre (3.3 feet) to 100 metres (330 feet) or more and employ closed and open loop heat exchange systems.
Geothermal as a renewable energy source is not intermittent like solar and wind. It operates continuously.
Geothermal is clean. Compared to wind and solar, its footprint on the land is small.
Geothermal power plants have long operational lives. Even geothermal heat pumps used in homes and buildings have a longer lifespan than conventional heating and cooling systems.
The energy source that geothermal taps into will last billions of years with a mere 0.1% of the total heat potential generated by the planet needed to meet global energy demand for millions of years into the future.
Risks include the need to drill. These are the same as those faced by the fossil fuel industry when exploring for oil and natural gas. But unlike in the search for oil and gas reservoirs, finding hot water or hot rocks is a lot easier.
And as in the search for fossil fuels, there are environmental impact risks. Finding hot water could also mean bringing contaminants to the surface such as arsenic, boron, fluoride and dissolved toxins. Drilling could also tap into sour gas (hydrogen sulphide) or other gasses that could be released into the atmosphere and contribute to warming.
Not all geothermal sites are the same. Some sources can initially produce high heat values and then over time see temperatures drop. Others can experience corrosion caused by closed-cycle reinjection.
Then there is the regulatory environment and public resistance. Government policy is still behind the times when it comes to understanding what’s involved with geothermal energy. Considering the Japanese public’s concern that this form of energy could impact natural warm springs, the industry needs to become better at communication.
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]]>Can geothermal energy help to increase the use of lithium battery technology? With so much emphasis on solar and wind power as less-expensive renewable power alternatives, geothermal energy is often overlooked as one of the world’s cleanest energy sources. But as the world ramps up its lithium oxide capacity to meet the growing demand for electric vehicles (EV), the technology may finally be getting its day in the sun.
Of course, many might wonder why the increasing desperation for lithium, and then again why geothermal energy sources could contribute to a lithium-based electric world. Well, the world is about to find out.
Under the current U.S. administration, the country is investing $100 billion in domestic manufacturing for EVs with the target goal of 50% in new car sales by 2030. EVs, however, require lithium-ion batteries in the absence of other material alternatives that have yet to be commercially developed.
A current challenge to our lithium dependency for EVs is that China dominates global markets with 1.5 million tons of lithium reserves. China’s lithium-ion battery manufacturing capacity has reached 74%, whereas the U.S. is only at 8%. That shortfall has to be made up with experts believing the U.S. alone will need 2.2 million tons of lithium-ion batteries to reach its goal by 2030. Currently, the country is heavily dependent on lithium imports from Russia (that’s changing because of the Ukraine war), Chile, Argentina, and China.
Another source is the recovery and recycling of existing lithium in batteries that today end up in landfills. Yet, recovery process improvements are needed, to ensure a domestic supply from these sources which can then supplement new lithium mines.
Lithium mining poses significant environmental risks. A single ton yield requires 2.2 million litres of water. Its extraction degrades soil and drinking water reserves, and emits toxic air pollutants causing nearby communities to be put at risk.
The Atacama Desert in Chile is a principle lithium source. There conflicts have erupted with local communities in the last four years because of a 65% decline in water resources caused by lithium mining operators.
Other studies show that the carbon dioxide (CO2) and sulphur-acid emissions associated with lithium mining account for 40% of lithium-ion battery production’s climate impact. The National Insitute of Environmental Health Sciences warns that lithium contributes to ozone and particulate matter pollution in the atmosphere leading to respiratory and cardiovascular disease, worsening allergies, asthma and reduced lung function.
These are the consequences of attempting to build an EV industry that advertises itself as 100% environmentally sustainable in support of achieving net zero emissions.
So where does geothermal energy enter the picture to alter the environmental and human risks of the EV transition?
Geothermal energy is a renewable power source that derives from the earth’s internal heat. It is a nearly zero-emission source of continuous energy. Geothermal energy requires drilling into the Earth and in the process these facilities extract saline solutions containing lithium, zinc, and manganese.
In the Salton Sea in California, engineers today are extracting lithium salt from the hot liquids found at depths of 1,220 metres (4,000 feet). These results point to the potential of geothermal plants not only becoming a growing renewable energy source but also a primary means of lithium production contributing to 10% or more of current demand for EV batteries.
Currently, geothermal energy costs between $4,000 and $6,000 per kilowatt-hour making it more expensive than solar and wind renewable sources. But economies of scale would suggest that in time geothermal will become more cost competitive with these existing renewable sources that in their time were far more expensive than electricity produced from fossil fuel sources.
Another benefit of geothermal energy is its tiny footprint on the landscape. A typical geothermal field uses 0.4 to 3 hectares (1 to 8 acres) per Megawatt produced compared to 4 hectares (10 acres) for a solar array, 7.7 hectares (19 acres) for a coal-fired powerplant, and 8 to 16 hectares (20 to 40 acres) for wind turbines. And extracting lithium from a geothermal energy source would be far less destructive to the environment than current mining operations with less demand on land and freshwater resources, and fewer destructive emissions.
When you consider geothermal capacity currently in the U.S. at 3,676 Megawatts and a Department of Energy estimate of 530 Gigawatts in potential, one can see just how significant the rapid development of this renewable energy source can contribute not only to reducing greenhouse gas emissions but also to the production of environmentally sustainable lithium for EV batteries.
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]]>Of course, if there had never been a Russian invasion of Ukraine, this vote would not have taken place and Europe wouldn’t be looking at abandoning its net-zero vision for 2050. With a renewed interest in natural gas and infrastructure to support it, money poured into this investment will lead to prolonged use of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emitting fuel.
Those who dissented from the decision, many of them representatives of the Green Party, pointed to the fact that the same amount of money to be spent on natural gas infrastructure could be put into wind and solar projects, and adapt the grid to optimize the energy these renewable sources produce. Nobody, however, talked about geothermal.
Geothermal energy was exploited by the Romans over two thousand years ago. It was used to heat baths and the floors of villas and homes. It is a considerable contributor to the energy requirements of Costa Rica and New Zealand. Europe’s capacity for geothermal remains largely unexploited to this day and yet the source lies right under the EU’s feet.
Geothermal resources are varied including:
Although the EU has studied geothermal energy as a resource they have failed to date to put a lot of money into projects. In 2021, the total amount allocated to 12 pilot projects and research amounted to 172 million euros, a small fraction of what the European community spends monthly on imported energy. That number in 2021 was 25.8 billion euros and with the recent rise in fossil fuel energy prices that euro outflow is dramatically increasing.
European geothermal energy opportunities are numerous. Of the 5,000 heating district networks throughout the EU, today only 280 use any geothermal. But the EU studies point to many missed opportunities that today use fossil fuel energy when geothermal in several forms could replace the burning of coal or the importation of natural gas for heating.
And it appears that applying an old technology to geothermal projects could accelerate projects in Europe and across the planet. A June 28th, 2022 article appearing in the British science publication, The Register, describes the gyrotron, a 1964 Institute of Applied Physics invention coming from the old Soviet Union. Gyrotrons were developed for nuclear physics research looking into fusion.
A gyrotron is a device that generates directed high-intensity microwave beams. It works like a laser but at a different frequency range. When focused on rock it can be used like a drill.
Drilling for oil and natural gas today uses mechanical technology. Using conventional drills favoured by today’s fossil fuel industry would be too expensive for the depths needed to get to superheated geothermal sources. A high-intensity microwave beam, therefore, is seen as a way to get to these energy sources by vaporizing the rock rather than grinding through it.
Quaise Energy, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) spinoff, is planning to use gyrotrons to dig the deep holes it needs to harvest geothermal heat. These holes will be the deepest humans have drilled on land as well as on sea.
Paul Woskov, an MIT physics professor working with nuclear fusion, has demonstrated the ability to use gyrotrons to vaporize rock. And although gyrotrons have never been used this way over extended periods of time he believes the technology can do the job. He notes that gyrotron properties are well known and that this novel use to blast holes tens of kilometres deep is the answer to getting to super-hot rocks.
His laboratory tests, see the image at the beginning of this article, have demonstrated vaporizing ability of gyrotrons. The holes seen in that picture are merely a beginning. Now he is using gyrotrons to create holes ten times longer. And next year the plan is to vaporize a hole 100 times longer than that, and so on. By 2025 the plan is to put a prototype gyrotron drilling rig in the field.
Matt Houde and Carlos Araque have been working with Professor Woskov and are the founders of Quaise Energy. Houde recently stated, “We believe, if we can drill down to 20 kilometres, we can access these super-hot temperatures in greater than 90 percent of locations across the globe.” He continues describing deep geothermal as “a power resource that can scale anywhere and has the ability to tap into a large workforce in the energy industry to readily repackage their skills for a totally carbon-free energy source.”
Quaise expects to harvest the heat energy from rocks as hot as 500 Celsius. Remaining challenges include the removal of the unvaporized rock in the hole and picking the right casing materials to line it to keep it stable and open.
Houde’s comment about the availability of a workforce already well-versed using drilling rigs and casings is one that I have stated repeatedly in past postings on this blog site. The skills used in the fossil fuel industry are readily transferable to doing work with geothermal development.
The EU’s vote this week to put natural gas into the low-carbon category along with renewables so that it can subsidize new projects and infrastructure to support a polluting source of energy appears to have overlooked a readily available sustainable alternative – geothermal. We know the EU has plenty of candidate sites. And we know that using gyrotrons with a little more testing and materials selection has the means to make that renewable source a replacement for existing natural gas demand, then why is the EU, and for that matter, North America continuing a love affair with a GHG pollutant that is a contributor to atmospheric warming?
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]]>There were well over one hundred in attendance on the call and the chat and Q&A were lively. As Green and Thomas took turns talking about the published report it became obvious that some renewable energy solutions had been left off the table. For example, off-grid rooftop solar wasn’t part of the calculation. Nor were passive geothermal standalone systems in buildings and homes. Nuclear got trashed without looking at the progress being made with fusion reactors by companies like General Fusion in British Columbia with its unique reactor design that will be demonstrated in the UK near Oxford in 2025.
Grid modernization and expansion were talked about because electricity would have to replace natural gas as the primary way to heat Canadian homes and buildings each winter. But distributed decentralized electrical systems didn’t seem to make the cut even though several cities are implementing these strategies. There was little about retrofitting and rehabbing homes and buildings to decrease energy demand by making these legacy structures more efficient.
So, I was somewhat disappointed by the points Green and Thomas highlighted, and equally disappointed that my questions in the chat and Q&A were left unanswered.
When asked how many solar farms and wind turbines would Canada need to achieve the zero-carbon renewable target by 2035, the answer was a capacity increase more than 1,000 times greater than what is currently installed or planned for the country. This would mean vast areas of the surface devoted to solar and wind power generation.
Leaving geothermal out of this renewable energy mix seemed to me to be a significant oversight in the Foundation’s plan. And here are five reasons why I say this.
So why overlook geothermal? As Green and Thomas explained, where there are already solar and wind farms, there isn’t a lot of geothermal going on in Canada at present. But what about the rest of the world? There certainly are numerous countries and sites already producing geothermal energy, and projects under construction elsewhere taking advantage of this renewable energy resource.
Back in 2017, my wife and I visited Rincon de la Vieja, a large active volcano in Costa Rica. Perched on the side of the mountain, it was one of five geothermal power plants producing a sizable chunk of electricity for the country. Costa Rica was exploiting the natural heat from some of its volcanoes to generate electricity. In other parts of the world where natural sources aren’t present, technologies like plume geothermal systems can be used to mimic what nature provides. The liquid used doesn’t have to be water. Captured liquefied carbon dioxide, for example, is being used in some of these geothermal power plants.
But neither volcanoes nor plume geothermal can hold a candle to the next evolution in the field called ultradeep power. The May 28, 2022 edition of The Globe and Mail includes an article written by Thomas Homer-Dixon and Ian Graham, of the Cascade Institute at Royal Roads University, and Ellen Quigley, at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge, describing the enormous potential of ultradeep power.
Ultradeep is not like other geothermal energy projects. Where plume geothermal taps into hot wet sedimentary formations, ultradeep taps igneous and metamorphic hot and dry rocks. The capacity of the former type of geothermal power is limited by the number of identified hydrothermal reservoirs underground. But ultradeep is virtually unlimited in finding suitable candidates to generate power.
Ultradeep involves drilling 10 or more kilometres (6 plus miles) into the Earth. The natural heat from these deep rocks is abundant in every part of Canada. The technology would inject fluid into the drilled wells with the heat converting it to steam.
Where fracking operations have caused seismic activity, ultradeep drilling would tap rock formations with no fault lines.
So what’s holding this technology back? Current drilling technology is insufficient for tapping ultradeep geothermal capacity. Deep hard-rock sources will require new technologies in development to replace the traditional drill heads used by the oil and gas industry. Among the technologies being tested are percussive, waterjet, plasma, microwave and directed-energy drilling.
I should note that the David Suzuki Foundation in its zero-carbon plan is not alone in having ignored geothermal’s power potential. The federal government of Canada in its latest net-zero carbon emissions strategy released at the end of March this year overlooked geothermal energy as well despite an existing project (see image above) under construction.
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]]>But geology has very much been at the front of mind in the world of climatology and those looking at the impact of global warming on Earth surfaces. Glaciation and its processes have always been studied by geologists. But now we have de-glaciation of alpine and polar regions, a phenomenon not previously observed at the current scale by those who study the field.
In today’s Globe and Mail, an article covering more than two pages of the first section describes the imminent collapse of the Planpincieux Glacier on the flanks of Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps. Data collected from radar reveal dangerous movement in the glacier amounting to an average of 50 centimeters (19.6 inches) daily. That may not seem like a lot but in the world of glaciation, the Globe reporter describes it as “Ferrari speeds.” When an alpine glacier begins to move downhill, its mass becomes destabilized.
On the Italian side of the mountain (it shares it with France) the organization Fondazione Montagna Sicura (Safe Mountain Foundation), has been monitoring Planpincieux. Roads below the glacier’s front are now closed as 250,000 cubic meters (more than 8.8 million cubic feet) of the glacier appears to be an imminent danger to those living beneath it.
When a fracture first appeared on the Planpincieux’s surface in August, daily monitoring began. In October the fracture had expanded to 150 meters (nearly 500 feet) in length, 20 meters (65 feet) in width, and 10 to 15 (32 to 50 feet) meters in depth. Below the fracture, approximately one-third of the glacier was picking up speed in its slide down the mountainside. Readings on October 13th showed the rate of slide at 30 centimeters daily (almost 12 inches) and 45 centimeters (almost 18 inches) on October 25th.
It is geological information like this that is driving European Union members to form a pan-European geological service within a larger multi-country initiative labeled Horizon Europe. The new European Geological Service combines information and research from 45 national geology agencies and survey organizations in 32 countries to share data and expertise on things geological happening at the surface or below it throughout the continent.
The type of information to be shared covers a wide range of geosciences including raw materials, groundwater distribution, geothermal energy, and carbon capture and storage (CCS) potential. In creating the new service members note that geospatial information does not stop at borders. By combining resources, therefore, the 32 member countries will produce consistent data and promote equitable and sustainable use of subsurface resources and materials, share reporting on changes to geomorphological phenomenon such as glaciers on the surface, and will create shared expertise in the fight to mitigate global warming.
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]]>Almost any form of renewable energy initially can be expensive to implement for the average homeowner. Families with low to moderate incomes who think of switching to renewable energy options such as geothermal find it cost prohibitive. There are, however, affordable ways to put geothermal energy to use in an average home.
As time passes renewable energy options are getting cheaper. And governments, in an effort to combat climate change are getting behind eco-friendly and sustainable energy options offering rebates, tax incentives, and other inducements. That’s why right now considering a geothermal energy option may be a good move.
Geothermal energy comes from underground. The Earth below ground can get pretty hot. In fact at the core its temperature is equal to the surface of the Sun, just under 6,000 Celsius (10,800 Fahrenheit) degrees. That heat radiates from the core to the subsurface where by drilling down a few hundred feet you find temperatures consistently between 10 and 15 Celsius (50 to 60 Fahrenheit) degrees. Capturing the heat in the winter and the cold in the summer using this differential becomes the energy source.
Geothermal isn’t a new idea. The Greeks and Romans used the heat from pipes sunk underground to warm the water in their communal baths. But today’s geothermal systems have added heat pumps that circulate fluid through pipes that run from 10 to 300 feet below ground. So you don’t need a volcano or a subsurface thermal spring for this passive form of heating and cooling. The resource is there for the taking just a few meters below ground.
As more countries focus on using greener energy, some are implementing policies that get behind renewables. Tax incentives are nothing new, but many people may not realize there are also incentives for switching to and using geothermal. In some U.S. states, commercial and residential units can qualify for a 30% tax credit applied to system and installation costs with no set cap on the purchase amount.
Canadian provinces and territories along with the federal government through its ecoENERGY Retrofit program have in the past or currently offer a vareity of tax rebates and funding programs for installation of geothermal systems.
A number of European Union countries offer similar programs.
Yet despite tax breaks and other financial incentives, only a tiny percentage of homeowners and businesses have chosen to install geothermal systems to-date. For example in the United States, according to Xiaobing Liu, a geothermal researcher at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, around 500,000 commercial buildings out of a total of 5.6 million use the technology.
Installation for geothermal energy in a private home is expensive costing between $20,000 to $25,000 USD. One of the restrictrions is lot size. You need nearly twice as much land per house.That limits the market for individual home-based geothermal systems. But installing geothermal in a housing development, or in commercial buildings with good sized lot footprints is very doable. An entire neighborhood can have a geothermal system installed with heat pumps in every home. Installation on this scale brings down the cost to individual homes substantially. Over 40% of all residential geothermal heating systems in Canada have used this method for installation. This has led to thousands of geothermal system installation going into existing homes since 2007, the vast majority, almost 80%, replacing oil and electricity for heating.
Upgrading to geothermal from conventional heating and cooling systems provides long-term benefits. Geothermal use is more efficient than heating and cooling by other means. It is a near-zero carbon emission technology. The energy source for the electricity to run the heat pump is your only potential emission source. Over time, geothermal will prove to be a money saver on heating and cooling costs and is rated to provide 50 to 70% better efficiency with heating and 20 to 40% with cooling than any other technologies on the market.
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]]>So what do homeowners and builders need to know about geothermal passive energy systems?
First some basic facts about the Earth as an energy source.
Our planet’s structure consists of several distinct layers formed over time. The heaviest chemical elements can be found at the centre with the lighter elements more concentrated at the surface. There are three distinct layers: first the crust which contains 1% of the Earth’s total volume. Next, the mantle which constitutes 84% of the total planetary volume. And finally, we get to the core at 15%.
At the surface, the temperature of the crust varies, depending on the climate, time of year, current weather conditions and so on. Go down 1.5 to 4.5 meters (5 to 15 feet), however, and you find temperatures that are fairly constant: warmer than the air above it in the winter, and cooler in the summer.
What’s the reason for the heat? If you build a mine that descends thousands of meters into the ground one thing you note right away. The farther down you go the hotter it gets. The source of that heat lies in the mantle which averages temperatures between 500 and 900 Celsius, (932 to 1,652 Fahrenheit) degrees. Now add to that the heat from the Sun which can penetrate the Earth’s crust to a degree as well creating a crust sandwich surrounded by these two energy sources.
A passive or low-temperature geothermal energy system takes advantage of the constant temperature found just a few meters below the surface. To harvest the heat or cooling that comes from this source developers can install underground pipes and use this temperature differential to advantage. The reason these systems are referred to as passive is because they are not producing heating or cooling, but instead are just taking advantage of the what is underground.
How does a passive geothermal system work? It consists of three main components:
A loop is a series of pipes installed in a building or home that run from underground to above ground within the structure. These pipes are filled with a non-freezing fluid that acts as an energy transfer medium, picking up the heat from underground in the winter, and conversely picking up the cool from underground in the summer. It works best in a building that is properly insulated.
Also known as a ground source heat pump, its main function is to transfer geothermal energy from the loop into the distribution system. Located inside the building it circulates the liquid in the pipes. The pump requires an electric power source but the savings derived from the passive geothermal system more than makes up for this energy requirement. Based on existing operating systems, home and building owners can see as much as two-thirds energy cost savings when this type of heating and cooling system is up and running.
The distribution system refers to the ductwork within a home or building through which the loop runs. In making the decision to install a passive geothermal energy system or not there are additional considerations.
Once you have decided that a passive geothermal system is something that makes sense for you, it will reliably serve your heating and cooling needs with minimal maintenance for decades. Another form of renewable energy worth considering!
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