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?

 

 

[depressed in 06]

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.

[familyop]

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.

;-)

[taxcontrol]

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.

http://coloradogeologicalsurvey.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/LoRes_Plate1_Interpretitive_Geothermal_Heat_Flow_Map.pdf

[familyop]

Well, there we are. Let’s drill ‘em! Out with tourism, and in with geothermal!

;-)

[ckilmer]

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.

;-)
...................
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.

[ckilmer]

I know there’s at least one geothermal plant in Utah that works under similar temperatures.

[publius911]

Now is the time to invest in real geothermal energy

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.

[ckilmer]

The corrosive environment destroys all the mechanical and metal components in record time. Perpetually expensive to maintain.
..................
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.

[Svartalfiar]

True. If you look at the map above, you’ll notice that the hot zones where geothermal works best — are all out west.

Yup, out west closer to the faults. However, how deep do you have to go to get enough heat, consistently hot enough, to actually make it worth it?

[Balding_Eagle]

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.

[Hootowl99]

I have worked at a commercial scale geothermal power plant located in California. This was about 30 years ago. Geothermal is indeed more expensive than natural gas with respect to capital and operating cost for the power plant.

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.

[Rockpile]

Seems like the island of Hawaii would be a good geothermal test locale.

[ottbmare]

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.

[cpdiii]

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?

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.

[thackney]

Thanks for your info

[oldplayer]

Does the steam bring up a nasty brew that eats into the equipment causing regular costly repairs?

______________

You bet. There are other costs too.

Oldplayer