Just to show you what I’m talking about:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_power

Please read this if you don’t know what geothermal power generation is – I am NOT talking about geothermal heat pumps!!!

This form of power eletricity generation has the potential to completely replace fossil fuels sustainably for several thousand years and would solve the problem of climate change, reduce the use of water and land and the creation of other kinds of pollution (so even if you don’t support the notion of climate change it’s a good idea) and stop reliance on foreign owned oil at the same time. It is far cheaper to produce eletricity geothermally than through using “clean” coal or nuclear power and it can be done on small as well as large scales so you could create more efficient grids than with nuclear and not waste power by transporting it long distances.

The US and Australia are in the two best positions to exploit geothermal resources, what are we waiting for?
Just want to make people aware of something in the article in case they don’t look at it:

“The MIT report estimated that there was enough energy in hard rocks 10 km below the United States to supply all the world’s current needs for 30,000 years.”

and

“Drilling at this depth is now routine for the oil industry (Exxon announced an 11 km hole at the Chayvo field, Sakhalin. Lloyds List 1/5/07 p 6). The technological challenges are to drill wider bores and to break rock over larger volumes. Apart from the energy used to make the bores, the process releases no greenhouse gases. Compared to the difficulties of developing other forms of energy supply (nuclear, wind, wave, solar etc.) EGS seems to be well worth encouragement.”
1. There is more than enough available, extractable energy to power not just the entire US but the entire planet beneath the western US.

2. There are geothermal power companies in more than 20 countries around the world but they never get the press attention of solar, wind, nuclear or “clean” coal… it is still however financially viable though: cost of energy production is lower than nuclear and about a third of “clean” coal energy costs. This is an under developed power resource.

3. That is true, you need to pump in water if it isn’t already there though not much with binary systems…. it also does need to be done with care and with understanding of the underlying geology of the area. Not sure this is an issue because it can be overcome and there are still plenty of places (such as the US for one) with more than enough geothermal power resources to run their entire country on cheaply.
“A 2006 report by MIT that took into account the use of Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) concluded that it would be affordable to generate 100 GWe (gigawatts of electricity) or more by 2050 in the United States alone, for a maximum investment of 1 billion US dollars in research and development over 15 years.”

1 billion dollars ain’t a whole lot, if this were getting a tenth the resources of solar, nuclear or “clean” coal then it would be very much financially viable.
Still waiting for this supposed email from Yupchagee – far as I’m concerned though it’ll take some strong proof from him to show how everyone else even opposed to geothermal power recognises that it causes very little to no emissions.

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