Posted on 02/22/2015 6:03:13 PM PST by ckilmer
If you cannot afford to spend money on labor to drill for fossil fuel when it is cheap, why would you spend money on something more expensive, when people are going to choose the less expensive.
Iceland has much volcanism right up to the surface. Some mighty deep holes would be needed on the CO Rockies for that. Might try Yellowstone, though.
;-)
Here in Colorado, we have a number of “hot springs” (Manitou, Pegosa, etc) that are 100 deg F or hotter. Here is a map from the Colorado Geothermal Survey that shows several of these active areas.
Well, there we are. Let’s drill ‘em! Out with tourism, and in with geothermal!
;-)
Iceland has much volcanism right up to the surface. Some mighty deep holes would be needed on the CO Rockies for that. Might try Yellowstone, though.
;-)
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ug not yellowstone thankyou.
They already have a couple of these things up and running in Nevada and California where its also geologically active but seems safer to play with fire.
I know there’s at least one geothermal plant in Utah that works under similar temperatures.
Geothermal energy has insurmountable problems that go way beyond the drilling.
The corrosive environment destroys all the mechanical and metal components in record time. Perpetually expensive to maintain.
The corrosive environment destroys all the mechanical and metal components in record time. Perpetually expensive to maintain.
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ah that’s what it is. probably worse than desalination where fully 1/3 of the costs are involved with maintenance. (the other two thirds are 1/3 capital costs & 1/3 energy costs.)
Hmm, I would hazard that sometime in the next 10 years or so the people doing materials research will come up with coatings that are both super water phobic and super resistant to corrosion. If you ever read physorg you see a relatively constant flow (as in 2-4 times a year) of materials with these characteristics. The addressable market for this in the water desal business alone is huge.
I used a restroom at some place near Mt. Princeton.
The only time I’ve ever used a toilet which used hot, very hot, water to flush.
It was filled via stainless steel pipes (about 2” diameter) laid on the ground. Guess there was no problem with freezing in winter.
Most geothermal energy in the USA is going to be a hot brine under pressure. This brine is extracted from the ground, piped to the power plant, flashed to make steam that in turn drives steam turbines for power generation. The spent steam is condensed back to liquid water at lower temperature than pumped back to the geothermal field for injection back into the ground.
Keep in mind that this is a brine, which means there are lots of dissolved salts, some of these salts toxic at high concentrations. A significant amount of the salts carry over into the flashed steam causing pretty radical fouling and corrosion, which in turn results in expensive metallurgy to keep the heat exchangers, piping, turbines, etc. from rapidly failing and plugging. Chemical additive cost for fouling control is pretty high as well.
Yes, geothermal is technically possible in much of the western USA. No, it is not economically competitive with natural gas, coal or nuclear. If it were, geothermal would most assuredly already be in common use. There is no conspiracy holding it back, just economics.
Seems like the island of Hawaii would be a good geothermal test locale.
I’m currently living in a house purportedly heated with geothermal energy. Installation was very costly indeed. It doesn’t run by itself; it burns through a lot of electricity. It doesn’t cost much less to run than the natural gas heat I had in the last house, which was of comparable size. (Obviously part of the expense is for the electricity to power system fans that distribute the heat through ductwork.) If we have to shut down the well, as has happened several times in the past few weeks when extreme cold caused pipes to break, the geothermal heating system doesn’t work. With natural gas heat, you don’t lose heat in the entire house while you’re waiting for the plumber to show up after a pipe bursts. I’ve had to supplement the geothermal system with electric space heaters. No, I’m not impressed.
Your post is the essence of the posts on this thread, A post to the top it is.
I spent 17 years on the drilling rigs looking for gas and oil and we found a bunch. I assure you that the guys at the top of Exxon, Shell, BP, Aramco etc. do not give a damn where the oil, gas or geothermal energy comes from. They will tap each and every one of them if they can make a profit.
Personally I do like geothermal energy as it is unlimited. I also recognize it is not competitive with gas and oil with the rare exceptions like Iceland which sits on top of a rift zone which means red hot rocks.
Thanks for your info
Does the steam bring up a nasty brew that eats into the equipment causing regular costly repairs?
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You bet. There are other costs too.
Oldplayer
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