Now is the time to invest in real geothermal energy Thousands of drilling rigs are idle.

Mother Nature Network ^ | Sun, Feb 22, 2015 at 12:17 PM | By: Lloyd Alter

[ckilmer]

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Now is the time to invest in real geothermal energy

Thousands of drilling rigs are idle. Why not put laid-off roustabouts to work drilling for renewable energy?

By: Lloyd Alter

Sun, Feb 22, 2015 at 12:17 PM

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Hey, if we can drill for oil, we can drill for heat. (Photo: Getty Images, Roustabouts at Spindletop)

In a recent post on ground source heat pumps, I purposely used a photo of a geothermal installation in Iceland to make the point that geothermal energy was a very different thing. Many complained that I obviously didn't know what I was talking about ("The big clue starts with the picture at the top which is NOT a geothermal heat pump system.") Well, duh — that was the whole point. Geothermal power is a very different thing and a very important source of renewable energy.

With true geothermal energy systems, the heat of the Earth's interior is used to make steam, which drives turbines, just like coal or nuclear plants do. This heat is close enough to tap at geologic faults, so the hot spots are along the Pacific rim and Iceland, the geothermal capital of the world. Almost every building in Iceland is heated by hot water, and all the country's electricity is made using geothermal steam. There is so much of it that there is talk of building a multibillion dollar submarine cable to Scotland. Meanwhile, the United States has 3,500 megawatts of installed geothermal electrical power, about 30 percent of the world's supply. It could have a lot more.

 

And thanks to the drop in the price of oil, now might be a good time to drill, baby, drill for geothermal energy. According to Bloomberg, drillers are parking rigs as oil prices collapse and have laid off thousands of workers. According to Reuters, "Oil drilling in the United States will continue to fall in the first half of this year, and could even halve, according to major oil service companies looking to past slowdowns as a guide."

North of the border in Alberta, Canada's oil powerhouse, they are trying to put those drills and workers to work on geothermal. According to Corporate Knights, it's a big opportunity, a silver lining for the geothermal industry. The head of the Canadian Geothermal Energy Association (CanGEA),  Alison Thompson, is teaching drillers how to adapt oil technology to geothermal drilling.

"These drilling rig operators are selling their services right now at half the price," said Thompson. "So this is a prime opportunity for us to be more cost-competitive, but to also get out-of-work people back to work."

Tyler Hamilton of Corporate Knights notes that it's tough to find drillers when the times are good in the oil patch; that's where the big money is. However it's a very different market right now.

“It’s just such a wonderful opportunity to have some cost decreases in our own industry,” Thompson said. “Now, when they find themselves out of work, we’re welcoming them with open arms.”

Tech transfer from the oil industry is actually happening in the geothermal world; Norway's Statoil is drilling for geothermal in Iceland, and Chevron is a big player in geothermal, although it recently pulled back because, well, nothing is as profitable as oil, or at least wasn't last year. 

 

Red is hot, hot hot! (Photo: U.S. Energy information agency)

 

According to an MIT study of Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS), geothermal energy could change the whole energy picture in America.

Geothermal energy from EGS represents a large, indigenous resource that can provide base-load electric power and heat at a level that can have a major impact on the United States, while incurring minimal environmental impacts. With a reasonable investment in R&D, EGS could provide 100 GWe or more of cost­competitive generating capacity in the next 50 years. Further, EGS provides a secure source of power for the long term that would help protect America against economic instabilities resulting from fuel price fluctuations or supply disruptions. 

Stanford economist Paul Romer noted in 2004 that "a crisis is a terrible thing to waste." The oil drilling industry and its workers are certainly having a crisis right now. Why not put them to work on the real geothermal energy right now?

 

 

[ckilmer]

Do you buy this argument?

[Shadow44]

How long before the Environazis say it causes earthquakes like fracking?

[Jack Hydrazine]

Wind mills are sooooooo much better!

[E. Pluribus Unum]

How long would it take the Left to decry the anthropogenic cooling of the Earth's core?

The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the revolution.

[Jonty30]

Although I don’t know if it is that inexpensive, because you are using electricity to pump the solution through the entire piping inside and outside the house, it does help keep the temperature of your home at a steady temperature year round.

[Hugin]

Thousands of oil rigs are idle because the price of energy is way down due to increased production. If geothermal wasn’t competitive with 100 dollar a barrel oil, how big are the subsidies going to have to be at 50?

[JimSEA]

They should be well aware of the earthquake potential. See the USGS records at the Geysers and Clear Lake, CA. Is it a real threat for major destructive earthquakes? No more than is fracking which is low.

[ckilmer]

How long before the Environazis say it causes earthquakes like fracking?
................
never. the big solar array in southwest nevada called Ivanhoe just fries birds at a regular clip just as windmills knock them out of the sky. The enviro’s don’t care. these are approved energy sources. same with geo. they can drill all they want and frack water and make the earth shake rattle and roll and the enviros won’t care. geothermal is an approved energy source.

[ckilmer]

Wind mills are sooooooo much better!
..............
for pulling up water or making energy?

[HMS Surprise]

Precisely. A good well will flow 100 barrels a day... Times 50... Times 365...

[BlackAdderess]

Wish I did have geothermal, poor little old man was found frozen solid on his sofa around here recently and that will never happen in a house with geothermal.

[ckilmer]

Although I don’t know if it is that inexpensive, because you are using electricity to pump the solution through the entire piping inside and outside the house, it does help keep the temperature of your home at a steady temperature year round.
................
what they want to do is drive water to a hotspot so it’ll come up as hot water or steam and then use the heat to drive a turbine to make electricity.

Much of the cost of doing this is in the drilling. If the drillers will suddenly charge half as much as they did for oil drilling — then the economics of this energy source look a lot better.

[knarf]

Besides ... the weather has been more than cold ... stuff freezes and weird things happen in sub zero temperature

[Rodamala]

How long before the Environazis say it causes earthquakes like fracking?

Or extracting heat from the mantle will cause the core to solidify, Earth to lose its magnetic field, and the solar wind ionizes and strips all the atmosphere from the planet.

                       WE'RE DOOMED!!

[ckilmer]

Thousands of oil rigs are idle because the price of energy is way down due to increased production. If geothermal wasn’t competitive with 100 dollar a barrel oil, how big are the subsidies going to have to be at 50?
.............
oil and electricity don’t compete directly against each other...at least not now. The point of these hydrothermal wells would be to make electricity. There’s a couple of them already in operation. Mostly in Nevada and California —in just the sweetest spots for hydrothermal == as you can see from the map above.

[nascarnation]

This could happen, but only if the dough is flowing to Warren Buffet, Elon Musk, Tom Steyer, or similar regime affiliate.

Heck, Fisker got $528 mil from the fedgov to sell 1800 cars.

[The Cajun]

Got to say, if there was ever a "widow maker" of a rig, that be it, LOL!

Old frayed rope pulling on the pipe tongs, open drive chain in the middle of everything, cable drum up close and personal.

[Olog-hai]

Or that it’ll put lava in your living room?

[Squawk 8888]

It’s less expensive because it delivers more energy than it uses. Heat pumps have been around since the 1970s but only drawing heat from outside air, so they’re less efficient when it’s colder outside. Putting them underground solves that problem and a lot of homes have had them installed that way over the past decade.