Absolutely.
U.S. Electric Power Industry Net Generation
Electric Power Annual with data for 2005
Posted on 01/22/2007 3:41:50 PM PST by kiriath_jearim
The extraordinary amount of heat seething below Earth's hard rocky crust could help supply the United States with a significant fraction of the electricity it will need in the future, probably at competitive prices and with minimal environmental impact, scientists now claim.
An 18-member panel led by MIT has prepared the first study in some 30 years to take a new look at the largely ignored area of geothermal energy.
Geothermal plants essentially mine heat by using wells at times a mile or more deep. These wells tap into hot rock and connect them with flowing water, producing large amounts of steam and super-hot water that can drive turbines and run electricity generators at the surface.
Unlike conventional power plants that burn coal, natural gas or oil, no fuel is required. And unlike solar power, a geothermal plant draws energy night and day.
Geothermal research was very active in the 1970s and early 1980s. As oil prices declined in the mid-1980s, enthusiasm for alternative energy sources waned and funding for research on geothermal and other renewable energy was greatly reduced, making it difficult for the technology to advance.
"Now that energy concerns have resurfaced, an opportunity exists for the U.S. to pursue the enhanced geothermal system option aggressively to meet long-term national needs," said panel head Jefferson Tester, a chemical engineer at MIT.
Fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas are increasingly expensive and dump carbon dioxide and other pollutants into the atmosphere. Furthermore, oil and gas imports from foreign sources are not necessarily secure in the world's shifting political climate.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
so has California, Utah and Nevada.
Montana has some beautiful places.
Interesting site -- my information's years out of date. Thanks for posting it.
Well then we'd better get some practical use out of Yellowstone before it blows and kills us all. (Joking folks, joking!)
Some buildings in Nebraska has been getting heat from geothermal sources for some 30 years.
If they can do it, why can't we?
Yes it does. As does Colorado, Wyoming, Washington, Idaho and Oregon.
I need to make it to Alaska sometime.
Cool the earths core until it solidifies and it becomes a dead piece of rock!
But natural gas is a by product, or a stand alone hydro carbon field unassociated with liquid crude. It isn't specifically refined from crude.
The basis of my argument is:
No matter how many tons of coal you replace by other means in the generation of electricity, it will not reduce our demand for oil by any significant amount.
Everyone needs to.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1763150/posts?page=308#308
Absolutely.
U.S. Electric Power Industry Net Generation
Electric Power Annual with data for 2005
Lets lease Yellowstone NP to Duke Power.
Hardly new science, but certainly worth another look.
Well, we would be sucking the energy out of mother gaia. Did you ever think of that?
So just what is Mother Gaia doing hanging out full of uranium? Something's off here.
Tom Swift, Jr pioneered this technology 50 years ago.
thanks, bfl
Bump for later reading
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