@@elli003Entrepreneurs are good for developing an existing market, ie fracking to get at oil, when the oil market already exists. Its low risk. But to take on an unproven market such as fracking for geothermal energy needs Governments to to get behind it. Entrepreneurs won’t touch high risk projects or technology for which non one is even sure how it could be used yet. The same was true for solar and wind power. Most of the expensive initial investments were taken on by the US and European governments, unfortunately for the west it was Chinese Entrepreneurs who had the vision to see that the market for those technologies was on the horizon. But without the initial investment by US and European governments neither technology would be where it is today. We ignore the value of our governments investment in technology at our peril, they take on the risk that no entrepreneur will initially touch. Space travel, nuclear fission, nuclear fusion….. And of course as is always the case with high risk projects, sometimes they fail, but maybe we should cut our governments some slack as without them, there is quite simply a lot of technology that may never have gotten off the ground for decades, maybe even longer…
Supporting research is one thing but supporting technology that is labelled as green but barely fit for purpose and expensive is quite another which is what government often does. If this technology proves to be successful and cost effective then the the government should let the private sector take over. When the private sector doesn't take over something without the carrot of government incentives, its's a sign that you don't have a viable technology from an affordability perspective. We only prosper with the cheapest energy possible.
Geothermal is a great energy source. However there are also problems. The EGS here is "fracking" the stones. This should only be done outside populated areas. Also could cause a problem if there is an aquifer that can become polluted. An alternative is a closed loop system, where water or glycolic fluid stays in a pipe and the pipe is heated by the surrounding earth. This can be used for house heating. Drilling is only some hundred meter deep, or even less if used in combination with a heat pump.
Thanks for the comment, I originally had this in my script but cut it for brevity. I agree that fracking is a concern, but FORGE/FERVO have designed a system that minimizes this risk. Fervo uses sensors to real-time monitor and apply a Traffic Light Protocol based on strict seismic risk to ramp up/down fracking. They’ve rarely had to pause for very long. Its geophysicist described their approach at the 55:00 min mark-worth a watch to fully understand the state of the industry. vimeo.com/1009184419 The closed loop system is also promising. I’m looking forward to seeing the project in Germany come online (when is that?) and the costs come down. www.eavor.com/blog/eavor-loop-technology-changing-energy-consumption-in-germany/
"Drilling some hundred meter deep, or even less if used in combination with a heat pump" is different from "geothermal energy" the world efforts are directed. Shallow depth have only marginal heat which is good but not what expectations are.
There really is no current system of energy generation that isn’t costly that gives the freedom needed. Stopping and reversing human caused climate change needs to be the number one priority. And that means shutting down hydrocarbon based energy production as quickly as possible. And then, in the meantime, developing ways to minimize environmental impacts of things like energy storage with more sustainable battery tech, or, in this case, the impacts of EGS processes. I know you’re just educating us, I just like… idk I think we are such dire straights as a planet that anything but pure, almost stupid positivity surrounding green energy techniques needs to be shouted down lol
You realize what they're talking bout here right? There are no aquifers where the heat reaches 300-400 degrees. Any water will only exist in the form of very high pressure steam. I don't recall mention of the depth of these wells but unless they are sitting on top of a natural hotspot related to magma, those wells are very deep to reach those temperatures.
@@beebop9808 When you drill deep you drill through layers with aquifers. Unless you take special care and install pipes you will pollute the aquifers, even if your final drilling is much deeper.
Kenya is the leading producer of geothermal energy in Africa and ranks among the top globally. On the world stage, the United States remains the largest producer of geothermal energy, followed by Indonesia and the Philippines.
@@CesarAnton while there are downsides to this process, it's not the same as oil and gas because methane wouldn't be burned or released into the environment.
@@northernouthouse that has nothing to do with it. The problem with fracking it's not the oil or gas you get out, it's the fracking itself which may cause several damages to the environment. Specially contamination of groundwater, earthquakes and sink holes. Read or watch some videos about the problems with FRACKING (not oil or gas). That being said, it can be a much better solution than coal or gas in some areas if done responsibly.
True, as close to 100% as possible is ideal. The cost of the electricity produced by the EavorLoop coming online soon in Germany were 2-3x what Fervor’s currently are at Cape (correct me if I’m wrong). Not sure if that’s more due to a challenging regulatory environment in the EU, or the differences in tech/engineering.
From what I understand, the Eavorloop drills two boreholes a few thousand feet apart that actually meet to create a “loop” through which they circulate a chemical fluid, like a big heat pump. They don’t use water to generate steam like Fervo/EGS does. Does that answer your question?
Granite and radon gas go together, in Cornwall UK in the 1970's, they tried doing just this and came to the conclusion they had no plans in place to handle the increasing radioactivity of the circulating water.
"increasing radioactivity of the circulating water." Water cannot be made radioactive but of course contaminants IN the water could be radioactive. If it is in a closed cycle steam generator, who cares about it? Radon emits alpha particles if I remember right; a sheet of paper is sufficient to block it. Radon has a halflife of only 3.8 days and is indeed alpha particles (protons, in other words). www.epa.gov/radiation/radioactive-decay
There is another company that is doing this idea of geothermal energy called Eavor. They have an active project setting up in Germany already. A big difference however is that Eavor has a closed loop and they don't try to fracture the ground around, they make a radiator to absorb heat. There are a few videos on them online.
The have geothermal power plants in both Southern Calif desert and as shown in the video in northern Calif working for decades now. Also Norway gets most of it's energy from geothermal. Apparently it actually does work. On the flip side the oil industry never stops creating pollution and having problems with drilling for and transporting oil meaning lots more maintenance. All for a product that that just constantly pollutes, the opposite of clean steam making clean electricity.
"They never tell you the negatives." We already know the negatives and have dealt with them. The cost of energy calculations already include all the operations and maintenance costs of the plant over its lifetime.
The video felt like an ad for Fervo and ARPA-E. All technologies have pros and cons yet you only talked about the pros. They are concerns about the water table and earthquakes that are legitimate and should be discussed as part of any honest discussion of enhanced geothermal.
Thanks for the feedback. Tho I am a fan of the work both Fervo and ARPA-E do, my approach is intended to hold the audience’s interest rather than oversell any person or org. I recognize this is a fuzzy line, especially when I’m putting as much production into it, and that sometimes I could dial it back a bit. I do enjoy getting a little carried away with the edit 😉 In terms of the seismic monitoring, Fervo addressed this well in their tech day I linked to in more info. They recycle 95% of the water they pump up to pump through the system, and I expect this to improve through innovation/reclamation (they pump wastewater down for geothermal at the geysers now). But for sure there are concerns and companies need to do things carefully and by the book with good oversight.
@@TheDailyConversation I sometimes have the opposite problem with my videos, being overly negative. It's a hard balance. I'm a huge fan of ARPA-E and I think Fervo is doing interesting work that might pay off. But I've been following EGS since Altarock about 20 years ago, so I'm not as optimistic as some. Someone recently suggested I do a video on Fervo, but I really liked Engineering with Rosie's take on geothermal, so I'm not sure I'll bother. In case you're curious, here's my channel. www.youtube.com/@Decarbonize11?sub_confirmation=1
A lot of folks don't understand how much cleaner fracking is now than it was thirty years ago. For those who weren't paying quite close enough attention to what was being said, this technology allows the potentil to piggyback on *already-fracked rock* once the kinks are ironed out. That means a hydrocarbon fracking play (which is short-lived) suddenly has vastly more value, particularly if the energy can then be used with molten-salt batteries useful for industrial-scale projects. It takes the energy production that is most-unfairly-maligned by environmentalists and turns it into something environmentalists can immediately cheer for -- the re-use of existing, played-out fracking sites to slowly make most of the rest of them unnecessary/non-viable. (Most not all, we need hydrocarbons for other things, unless you want your artificial heart parts made from leather).
Sustainable power generation at The Geysers is possible today because of two large-scale wastewater injection projects from Lake County and the City of Santa Rosa. Together, these projects provide approximately 20 million gallons of reclaimed water per day for injection into The Geysers reservoir.
Great point. Utah is dry and will become drier. 95+% of the water is now captured and reused in the loop (based on the 📊 as I remember it). I envision using the electricity to power systems that efficiently capture and store water from the air for many uses in the arid west, along with much improved rainwater/runoff capture systems...and more efficient farming practices to recharge over-pumped aquifers. If we really get desperate, we can buy and pipe water down from Canada. And of course, we’ll be able to transmit great amounts of this cleanly-generated electricity (and heat and water), over long distances, so it’s generation can occur far away from where it’s consumed. (Although from an efficiency standpoint this isn’t ideal.) One thought sinks in as I research these projects: our ancestors went big to put us in the dominant societal position we’re in now (living standards, geopolitics, etc.), so to deal with the collateral challenges, we need to keep thinking and going big. Use science to engineer solutions to every problem to increase everyone’s quality of life, while minimizing collateral damage now and in the future. Good news is our research and development system so on-point that the tools we need continually emerge, we just need to continue funding programs that find them and put them to good use! 🤓🥸😎
I've heard that roughly 2 to 4k gallons of water are needed per kW-hr produced. If losses are under 5% in a closed circuit system, it's just a drop in the bucket. Even out here in the desert southwest.
When it comes to conventional drilling and fracking there are other options. One is "Plasma deep drilling technology " which uses a powerful laser to burn through rock. This method allows for deeper well and higher temperatures. Plasma drilling also creates a sealed borehole. By creating a loop, very hot water can be circulated to run an electrical turbine.
That’s very interesting! I came across the work Quaise is doing on this. They are DOE funded too I believe. Looking forward to seeing them prove it is affordable. Does the plasma use a lot of energy? www.quaise.energy/
The advance in the FORGE research wells were as much in drill rate as production concepts. These specific types of geothermal concepts have been uneconomic. Drilling rigs charge by the day, and drill rates were increased at FORGE from 30 to 300 feet per hour with conventional bits. This is stunning in thousands of feet of granite rock that's almost identical to your kitchen counter top, except it's even harder. Lasers, plasma, and other cutting technologies might cut it, but they aren't even close to being competitive with 300fph, even if you could work out some serious technical challenges.
There's no mention here of what cocktail of chemicals would be injected to create the fractures. If they're anything like what's used for oil or natural gas fracking, the prospect of doing this across the eastern seaboard is pretty eepy. Also, earthquakes.
This is the future. The heat is free and it's hot 365 days a year and 24 hours a day. Solar panels and windmills never make power 24 hours a day. Oil companies can help drill these holes. They have experience for drilling. If each state in the future drilled and made electricity from these sites, one day they could even drill more holes to make hydrogen for cars, trucks and planes. And then even solar panels and windmills would not be needed one day in the future,,,,,,,,,,,,
If and when this scales, the whole paradigm shifts. Every shuttered coal plant could be the site of a future EGS plant, mitigating the need for endless tracts of wind and solar.
1. Not evil, just not ideal. 2. What do you mean? Cooling the earth as in the soil/rock underground (seems fine) or cooling the air (we’re warming it unnaturally so why not)?
#1 fracking to extract oil and gas is not ideal. Burning oil and gas produces ghg which warms the planet which in turn creates more intense storms. It's also well documented that oil and gas infrastructure leaks methane which is one of the most potent ghg. Economically, nations can not afford to continue to burn carbon and pollute the environment freely. Oceans are warming to a significant extent that earth is losing biodiversity and that will ultimately affect the food chain. Further, nations simply can't afford to pay for the damages that these storms cause to households and businesses. Take hurricane Helene and it's destruction. There are going to be parts of states that will take years to recover. Yet, hurricane season happens every year and the storms are getting more intense as time passes. Damage from severe storms, on a cumulative basis, could wipe out national treasuries in the future if the world doesn't transition to low carbon economy. If a person has a leaky roof, the prudent action is to fix the roof and not ignore the problem. At the end of the day, this is about saving people and governments $$$. #2 No risk of this happening as the core has retained this heat for billions of years and the core constantly regenerates the heat. It is a potential unlimited energy source.
Oil and methane pollute far more. The difference is same as digging a mine tunnel and drilling an oil well through the aquifer you get your drinking water from: Even if you completely failed to look into what is down there and tunnel into an aquifer the potential for contamination is tiny compared to mixing millions of barrels of oil into your water source. And after that burning the oil and gas spreads massive amounts of CO2 and other pollutants all over while the heat and electricity from geothermal will be as close to 100% clean as realistically possible. Also, if you failed to account for other ground conditions and the mine collapses the damage above will be small compared to emptying the huge underground reservoir of oil and gas which will allow the fractured earth to move causing an earthquake. Both could cause earthquakes but the potential is lower and the likely scale smaller with geothermal.
If this energy technology proves to be successful and cost effective then the the government should let the private sector take over. When the private sector doesn't take over something without the carrot of government incentives, it's a sign that you don't have a viable technology from an affordability perspective. We only prosper with cheap energy.
Great post on you tube and great presentation about geothermal energy. Drilling geothermal wells on underground hot rocks is a challenge, and these shows the strength of drilling companies. Geothermal energy is great even have different challenges. Surprisingly on company papers (not peer review) the estimate of rock power 8.4 MWe/km3 estimated from companies is 9 time higher than previous estimates from department of energy (0.7 to 0.9 MWe/km3) even the project is based on lower temperatures than 300 deg C. Who can explains about these estimates?
I was watching a video about mechanical batteries earlier so my though now obviously is to add a spinning mechanical battery to a geo thermal plant. It would handle rapid load changes and most of all could be charged and reboosted from the steam directly (without going through a generator and motor). It feels neat, but I suppose it is too much steam hardware and they could just use normal batteries, or simply dynamically adjust the throttle on the main generator to deal with load changes.
Eavor loop seems like a better geothermal system as it's a closed loop system and doesn't involve fracking, and doesn't absorb radon etc. The Eavorloop system is more expensive up front because you'd need to do more expensive drilling.
This method recaptures 95% of the same water, over what period? How is that loss compensated? Does continuous boiling in that fractured region not break down rock to the point that it travels up the return pipe or begins to clog the inlet? I imagined a closed heat exchanger would be able to be placed in hole but of course it would be hard to fit a large/long enough one when you're only dealing with 300-400F... What are the pipes made of - a stainless steel or mild steel? I imagine a sCO2 turbine would make it possible to extract adequate heat from the hole with a closed loop heat exchanger, maybe even with one hole, using supercritical CO2 as the working fluid. Then, you don't have any water consumption but a large ambient radiator. With an unfractured region filled with oil or something, you could possibly still get adequate heat transfer through the heat exchanger for comparable electrical generation due to the relatively high efficiency of a sCO2 turbine compared to steam... less heat but comparable electricity... and much smaller turbinonachinery... and no water.
Great video but this is also fracking, so calling it "Clean Energy" feels misleading. This method creates basically the same issues as fracking 💀 "Economically viable" is usually not "Environmentally sustainable"
@@TheDailyConversation good question! oversimplified it would be one that doesn't generate significant environmental damage. Even solar and hydro can be "dirty" when done improperly. But fracking is well known by ecologist for their multiple damages to the environment, very often severe and irrevesible. From pulling groundwater to causing earthquakes and sink holes. Geothermal can be a great source of energy when done in a closed loop. Using fracking to simplify the process and reduce costs it's what makes it a problem. Fracking aside, thanks for the great video! Greetings from NYC 👋
Iceland has the potential to create hydrogen fuel from their excess GT energy and export it for cash. I believe parts of Japan and Indonesia can do the same.
I Say Directional Drill. For Example :- Drill Two Holes at an Angle so They Intersect Deep in the Hot Zone. Sure this Requires Accuracy and Clever Drilling. Once You Perfect this Method, You can Parallel Drill for More Capacity.
This is nuts. The canadian firm That is drilling a closed loop Is a much better solution. Modifying the earth when you could just drill thru with a sealed system is a crazy way to go about it.
How do we get projects started in my home state of Montana? I think this technology is amazing and we are located in the "hot rock" zone. What can I do as an advocate? What can YOU do to help me?
So what are current and target estimates of this type of energy source? Is this really practical yet or are there still major obstacles to overcome? Geothermal has always been nice when there is easy access but too costly to expend effort. I don't think anyone wants to pay gasoline prices for electricity, wind and solar by comparison seems cheaper although efficient and cheap storage is still needed to be 24/7/365.
See graph at ua-cam.com/video/jxICYjBEsvo/v-deo.html&si=0seQT0U7HzxmZzvC No, not really any obstacles as I see it when done smartly and by the book, just scale and streamlining the finding of new rock/heat zones to maximize generation-which should be plentiful. Good thing we know how to drill, baby drill! Plus we have plenty of rigs, which can be reused (as can their crews).
1: Australian politicians are idiots thoroughly bribed by the coal industry so even if some company wanted to invest their permits might have been denied. 2: The reason this is now in the news are the new drilling techniques that allow for deeper wells and better access to the underground heat. Lower costs make geothermal viable enough to compete with solar and wind. Australia is great place for wind and solar so there would have been little reason to focus on geothermal.
I still don't understand why ThermoPhotoVoltaics are not the answer. You drill. You drop a string of TPV cells into the hole connected to a high voltage power cable. You seal the hole. Tranformer..Plug in.
So…. Let’s drill and puncture the earth’s crust so we can have MORE earthquakes. Human “smarts” will cause more disasters… which won’t be acknowledged until it’s too late.
Basically robbing heat from the planet . By doing that we are asking for some huge tectonic ramifications . If we use the heat that controls our geomagnetic stability . By in effect cooling the core of of the earth , A very bad idea .If we cool the core by a proliferation of geothermal plants . The core will shrink every so slightly which will force the crust to react violently . We will see plate tectonics like what have never seen by man .I think we need to investigate this possibility .thoroughly .
I really like nuclear energy. We should continue planning to build out a lot more of it. But I have to admit EGS looks like it has the potential to compete very strongly against nuclear, at least as it exists in the US. That said, this is still very unproven tech at the scales needed. It might not scale as well as hoped. So we should continue on both tracks.
Overnight capital cost of advanced nuclear or SMR power plants range quite high $7,800/kW+. Although it has a high capacity factor, it is not the most ideal method to invest billions into new power plants. We should be worried about refurbishing and extending the life of existing nuclear plants, and invest into battery technology to improve solar use, geothermal, and other technologies that we can forecast becoming cheaper. Not fully against you here though.
From 2 min 40 sec. starts terrible, unnecessary disturbing music. These programs are watched by many people that do not speak english at home.Remove that music.
Ha! Sorry. This is my primary challenge when taking this approach: many, many of the clips I’m using contain pretty terrible audio and/or really bad background music, forcing me to choose between dropping the clip altogether or doing my best to integrate it with the rest of the video’s audio score. I loved what the Governor said and thought it needed to be in, but it sounds like I got this call wrong to you. I’ll be better 😝
Geothermal energy is dumb, for many reasons, pumping massive amounts of water, which we don’t have excess of, into the ground, to get steam, is incredibly expensive. Solar + battery storage is the cheapest, most reliable power production. It doesn’t rain or snow everyday, yep, we have water on constant demand via storage.
In the video they state 95% of the water is re-used. Aren't the costs for battery and solar panel replacement and maintenance higher than pipe maintenance + that 5 percent water? We also don't have excess nickel, cobalt, lithium, ...
95% of water is captured. Fervo uses all electric equipment. I agree we should maximize solar+battery if it ends up being cheaper and less environmentally costly, but solar and battery use a lot of rare earths (as other commenters have mentioned).
I suggest that this should not be a long term (>20 year) as it may disrupt the earth thermal regulation? Sun base solutions seems more sensible and responsible.
This is a GREAT example of why government is indispensible in developing new technologies.
You can thank George Mitchell for developing fracking technology.
@@elli003Entrepreneurs are good for developing an existing market, ie fracking to get at oil, when the oil market already exists. Its low risk. But to take on an unproven market such as fracking for geothermal energy needs Governments to to get behind it. Entrepreneurs won’t touch high risk projects or technology for which non one is even sure how it could be used yet. The same was true for solar and wind power. Most of the expensive initial investments were taken on by the US and European governments, unfortunately for the west it was Chinese Entrepreneurs who had the vision to see that the market for those technologies was on the horizon. But without the initial investment by US and European governments neither technology would be where it is today. We ignore the value of our governments investment in technology at our peril, they take on the risk that no entrepreneur will initially touch. Space travel, nuclear fission, nuclear fusion….. And of course as is always the case with high risk projects, sometimes they fail, but maybe we should cut our governments some slack as without them, there is quite simply a lot of technology that may never have gotten off the ground for decades, maybe even longer…
Government is the stumbling block of progress.
@@alfredfleming3289 So federal financing of University research is a stumbling block?....Take a think before commenting.
Supporting research is one thing but supporting technology that is labelled as green but barely fit for purpose and expensive is quite another which is what government often does.
If this technology proves to be successful and cost effective then the the government should let the private sector take over. When the private sector doesn't take over something without the carrot of government incentives, its's a sign that you don't have a viable technology from an affordability perspective. We only prosper with the cheapest energy possible.
Geothermal is a great energy source. However there are also problems. The EGS here is "fracking" the stones. This should only be done outside populated areas. Also could cause a problem if there is an aquifer that can become polluted.
An alternative is a closed loop system, where water or glycolic fluid stays in a pipe and the pipe is heated by the surrounding earth. This can be used for house heating. Drilling is only some hundred meter deep, or even less if used in combination with a heat pump.
Thanks for the comment, I originally had this in my script but cut it for brevity. I agree that fracking is a concern, but FORGE/FERVO have designed a system that minimizes this risk. Fervo uses sensors to real-time monitor and apply a Traffic Light Protocol based on strict seismic risk to ramp up/down fracking. They’ve rarely had to pause for very long.
Its geophysicist described their approach at the 55:00 min mark-worth a watch to fully understand the state of the industry.
vimeo.com/1009184419
The closed loop system is also promising. I’m looking forward to seeing the project in Germany come online (when is that?) and the costs come down.
www.eavor.com/blog/eavor-loop-technology-changing-energy-consumption-in-germany/
"Drilling some hundred meter deep, or even less if used in combination with a heat pump" is different from "geothermal energy" the world efforts are directed. Shallow depth have only marginal heat which is good but not what expectations are.
There really is no current system of energy generation that isn’t costly that gives the freedom needed. Stopping and reversing human caused climate change needs to be the number one priority. And that means shutting down hydrocarbon based energy production as quickly as possible. And then, in the meantime, developing ways to minimize environmental impacts of things like energy storage with more sustainable battery tech, or, in this case, the impacts of EGS processes. I know you’re just educating us, I just like… idk I think we are such dire straights as a planet that anything but pure, almost stupid positivity surrounding green energy techniques needs to be shouted down lol
You realize what they're talking bout here right? There are no aquifers where the heat reaches 300-400 degrees. Any water will only exist in the form of very high pressure steam. I don't recall mention of the depth of these wells but unless they are sitting on top of a natural hotspot related to magma, those wells are very deep to reach those temperatures.
@@beebop9808 When you drill deep you drill through layers with aquifers. Unless you take special care and install pipes you will pollute the aquifers, even if your final drilling is much deeper.
Kenya is the leading producer of geothermal energy in Africa and ranks among the top globally. On the world stage, the United States remains the largest producer of geothermal energy, followed by Indonesia and the Philippines.
Thanks for the info! Are they trying any new methods in these countries?
Iceland became wealthy off geothermal energy, so this is very promising.
I didn’t know we could drill deep enough in none-volcanic regions.
It's not the same, here they are using fracking so it's not green at all, it has the same issues as using fracking to extract oil and gas.
With this I think y’all will keep getting mad money
@@CesarAnton while there are downsides to this process, it's not the same as oil and gas because methane wouldn't be burned or released into the environment.
@@northernouthouse that has nothing to do with it.
The problem with fracking it's not the oil or gas you get out, it's the fracking itself which may cause several damages to the environment. Specially contamination of groundwater, earthquakes and sink holes.
Read or watch some videos about the problems with FRACKING (not oil or gas).
That being said, it can be a much better solution than coal or gas in some areas if done responsibly.
@CesarAnton that's why fracking shouldn't be done near populated areas.
Even a 5% loss in water is a huge water demand - in Canada, a company named Eavor has a closed-loop solution that looks very promising
True, as close to 100% as possible is ideal. The cost of the electricity produced by the EavorLoop coming online soon in Germany were 2-3x what Fervor’s currently are at Cape (correct me if I’m wrong). Not sure if that’s more due to a challenging regulatory environment in the EU, or the differences in tech/engineering.
@@TheDailyConversation why is that technology 100% closed looop, while this one is 95%
From what I understand, the Eavorloop drills two boreholes a few thousand feet apart that actually meet to create a “loop” through which they circulate a chemical fluid, like a big heat pump. They don’t use water to generate steam like Fervo/EGS does. Does that answer your question?
Granite and radon gas go together, in Cornwall UK in the 1970's, they tried doing just this and came to the conclusion they had no plans in place to handle the increasing radioactivity of the circulating water.
Couldn't you store it in another underground void made in likewise manner?
"increasing radioactivity of the circulating water."
Water cannot be made radioactive but of course contaminants IN the water could be radioactive. If it is in a closed cycle steam generator, who cares about it? Radon emits alpha particles if I remember right; a sheet of paper is sufficient to block it.
Radon has a halflife of only 3.8 days and is indeed alpha particles (protons, in other words). www.epa.gov/radiation/radioactive-decay
There is another company that is doing this idea of geothermal energy called Eavor. They have an active project setting up in Germany already. A big difference however is that Eavor has a closed loop and they don't try to fracture the ground around, they make a radiator to absorb heat. There are a few videos on them online.
What a fabulous discovery and implementation 🎉🎉🎉
Truly a ground breaking technology.
Geo thermal water/steam is corrosive. Lots of maintenance, upkeep. Short well, pipe, valve and turbine lifetimes. They never tell you the negatives.
The have geothermal power plants in both Southern Calif desert and as shown in the video in northern Calif working for decades now. Also Norway gets most of it's energy from geothermal. Apparently it actually does work. On the flip side the oil industry never stops creating pollution and having problems with drilling for and transporting oil meaning lots more maintenance. All for a product that that just constantly pollutes, the opposite of clean steam making clean electricity.
@cre8tvedge Google "geothermal corrosive"
Google 'geothermal corrosive'.
Google geothermal corrosive.
"They never tell you the negatives." We already know the negatives and have dealt with them. The cost of energy calculations already include all the operations and maintenance costs of the plant over its lifetime.
The video felt like an ad for Fervo and ARPA-E. All technologies have pros and cons yet you only talked about the pros. They are concerns about the water table and earthquakes that are legitimate and should be discussed as part of any honest discussion of enhanced geothermal.
Thanks for the feedback. Tho I am a fan of the work both Fervo and ARPA-E do, my approach is intended to hold the audience’s interest rather than oversell any person or org. I recognize this is a fuzzy line, especially when I’m putting as much production into it, and that sometimes I could dial it back a bit. I do enjoy getting a little carried away with the edit 😉
In terms of the seismic monitoring, Fervo addressed this well in their tech day I linked to in more info. They recycle 95% of the water they pump up to pump through the system, and I expect this to improve through innovation/reclamation (they pump wastewater down for geothermal at the geysers now). But for sure there are concerns and companies need to do things carefully and by the book with good oversight.
@@TheDailyConversation I sometimes have the opposite problem with my videos, being overly negative. It's a hard balance.
I'm a huge fan of ARPA-E and I think Fervo is doing interesting work that might pay off. But I've been following EGS since Altarock about 20 years ago, so I'm not as optimistic as some.
Someone recently suggested I do a video on Fervo, but I really liked Engineering with Rosie's take on geothermal, so I'm not sure I'll bother.
In case you're curious, here's my channel.
www.youtube.com/@Decarbonize11?sub_confirmation=1
A lot of folks don't understand how much cleaner fracking is now than it was thirty years ago. For those who weren't paying quite close enough attention to what was being said, this technology allows the potentil to piggyback on *already-fracked rock* once the kinks are ironed out. That means a hydrocarbon fracking play (which is short-lived) suddenly has vastly more value, particularly if the energy can then be used with molten-salt batteries useful for industrial-scale projects.
It takes the energy production that is most-unfairly-maligned by environmentalists and turns it into something environmentalists can immediately cheer for -- the re-use of existing, played-out fracking sites to slowly make most of the rest of them unnecessary/non-viable. (Most not all, we need hydrocarbons for other things, unless you want your artificial heart parts made from leather).
Amen
Excellent video, Bryce!!! I really hope the government encourages massive growth into this sector and does it quickly.
Absolutely! Thanks Robin 😁
Hope you guys are well and looking forward to 🎅🏻 🤶
Awesome!
Is it commercially viable WITHOUT Government Subsidies??
Sustainable power generation at The Geysers is possible today because of two large-scale wastewater injection projects from Lake County and the City of Santa Rosa. Together, these projects provide approximately 20 million gallons of reclaimed water per day for injection into The Geysers reservoir.
Looks great but I dont understand how you get the fresh water, in Utah.. Is it a closed circuit? Surely there will be water losses in each cycle
Great point. Utah is dry and will become drier. 95+% of the water is now captured and reused in the loop (based on the 📊 as I remember it). I envision using the electricity to power systems that efficiently capture and store water from the air for many uses in the arid west, along with much improved rainwater/runoff capture systems...and more efficient farming practices to recharge over-pumped aquifers. If we really get desperate, we can buy and pipe water down from Canada. And of course, we’ll be able to transmit great amounts of this cleanly-generated electricity (and heat and water), over long distances, so it’s generation can occur far away from where it’s consumed. (Although from an efficiency standpoint this isn’t ideal.)
One thought sinks in as I research these projects: our ancestors went big to put us in the dominant societal position we’re in now (living standards, geopolitics, etc.), so to deal with the collateral challenges, we need to keep thinking and going big. Use science to engineer solutions to every problem to increase everyone’s quality of life, while minimizing collateral damage now and in the future. Good news is our research and development system so on-point that the tools we need continually emerge, we just need to continue funding programs that find them and put them to good use!
🤓🥸😎
Pipeline from the Great Lakes?
@@stewyoung8523nah that would ruin the Great Lakes
Once the created cracks are filled with water, there's no loss below ground.
I've heard that roughly 2 to 4k gallons of water are needed per kW-hr produced. If losses are under 5% in a closed circuit system, it's just a drop in the bucket. Even out here in the desert southwest.
When it comes to conventional drilling and fracking there are other options. One is "Plasma deep drilling technology " which uses a powerful laser to burn through rock. This method allows for deeper well and higher temperatures. Plasma drilling also creates a sealed borehole. By creating a loop, very hot water can be circulated to run an electrical turbine.
That’s very interesting! I came across the work Quaise is doing on this. They are DOE funded too I believe. Looking forward to seeing them prove it is affordable. Does the plasma use a lot of energy?
www.quaise.energy/
It isn't a laser. It's a gyrotron and it beams 500kw of directed microwaves down the borehole and vaporizes the rock via dielectric heating.
The advance in the FORGE research wells were as much in drill rate as production concepts. These specific types of geothermal concepts have been uneconomic. Drilling rigs charge by the day, and drill rates were increased at FORGE from 30 to 300 feet per hour with conventional bits. This is stunning in thousands of feet of granite rock that's almost identical to your kitchen counter top, except it's even harder. Lasers, plasma, and other cutting technologies might cut it, but they aren't even close to being competitive with 300fph, even if you could work out some serious technical challenges.
I see the right investment is build it out in the west till it's profitable and consistent then move it out east over time
There's no mention here of what cocktail of chemicals would be injected to create the fractures. If they're anything like what's used for oil or natural gas fracking, the prospect of doing this across the eastern seaboard is pretty eepy.
Also, earthquakes.
This is the future. The heat is free and it's hot 365 days a year and 24 hours a day. Solar panels and windmills never make power 24 hours a day. Oil companies can help drill these holes. They have experience for drilling. If each state in the future drilled and made electricity from these sites, one day they could even drill more holes to make hydrogen for cars, trucks and planes. And then even solar panels and windmills would not be needed one day in the future,,,,,,,,,,,,
If and when this scales, the whole paradigm shifts. Every shuttered coal plant could be the site of a future EGS plant, mitigating the need for endless tracts of wind and solar.
Agree that closed loop is the preferred method for Geothermal.
Two things
#1 Its great to frack for geo thermal but evil to frack for oil?
#2 Is it a really a good idea to cool the earth in a non natural way?
1. Not evil, just not ideal.
2. What do you mean? Cooling the earth as in the soil/rock underground (seems fine) or cooling the air (we’re warming it unnaturally so why not)?
#1 fracking to extract oil and gas is not ideal. Burning oil and gas produces ghg which warms the planet which in turn creates more intense storms. It's also well documented that oil and gas infrastructure leaks methane which is one of the most potent ghg. Economically, nations can not afford to continue to burn carbon and pollute the environment freely. Oceans are warming to a significant extent that earth is losing biodiversity and that will ultimately affect the food chain. Further, nations simply can't afford to pay for the damages that these storms cause to households and businesses. Take hurricane Helene and it's destruction. There are going to be parts of states that will take years to recover. Yet, hurricane season happens every year and the storms are getting more intense as time passes. Damage from severe storms, on a cumulative basis, could wipe out national treasuries in the future if the world doesn't transition to low carbon economy. If a person has a leaky roof, the prudent action is to fix the roof and not ignore the problem. At the end of the day, this is about saving people and governments $$$.
#2 No risk of this happening as the core has retained this heat for billions of years and the core constantly regenerates the heat. It is a potential unlimited energy source.
Oil and methane pollute far more. The difference is same as digging a mine tunnel and drilling an oil well through the aquifer you get your drinking water from: Even if you completely failed to look into what is down there and tunnel into an aquifer the potential for contamination is tiny compared to mixing millions of barrels of oil into your water source. And after that burning the oil and gas spreads massive amounts of CO2 and other pollutants all over while the heat and electricity from geothermal will be as close to 100% clean as realistically possible.
Also, if you failed to account for other ground conditions and the mine collapses the damage above will be small compared to emptying the huge underground reservoir of oil and gas which will allow the fractured earth to move causing an earthquake. Both could cause earthquakes but the potential is lower and the likely scale smaller with geothermal.
That's what I said but somehow my reply got deleted.
@@northernouthouse YT weirdness again.
I love the concept hate that the government has to be involved🤔🤔🤔😔 should be private industries
This tech should be priority..but money has its own rule
If this energy technology proves to be successful and cost effective then the the government should let the private sector take over. When the private sector doesn't take over something without the carrot of government incentives, it's a sign that you don't have a viable technology from an affordability perspective. We only prosper with cheap energy.
Great post on you tube and great presentation about geothermal energy. Drilling geothermal wells on underground hot rocks is a challenge, and these shows the strength of drilling companies. Geothermal energy is great even have different challenges.
Surprisingly on company papers (not peer review) the estimate of rock power 8.4 MWe/km3 estimated from companies is 9 time higher than previous estimates from department of energy (0.7 to 0.9 MWe/km3) even the project is based on lower temperatures than 300 deg C. Who can explains about these estimates?
I was watching a video about mechanical batteries earlier so my though now obviously is to add a spinning mechanical battery to a geo thermal plant. It would handle rapid load changes and most of all could be charged and reboosted from the steam directly (without going through a generator and motor).
It feels neat, but I suppose it is too much steam hardware and they could just use normal batteries, or simply dynamically adjust the throttle on the main generator to deal with load changes.
Good thoughts all! Which video?
@@TheDailyConversation 'How This Mechanical Battery is Making a Comeback' by Undecided with Matt Ferrell
Thanks!
Eavor loop seems like a better geothermal system as it's a closed loop system and doesn't involve fracking, and doesn't absorb radon etc. The Eavorloop system is more expensive up front because you'd need to do more expensive drilling.
A mini ⭐ star in the centre of earth 🌎 hydrodynamic 🌋 ☁️
💥 🎉
I wanted to do this for some time. I hope that they can get investment for growth.
This method recaptures 95% of the same water, over what period? How is that loss compensated?
Does continuous boiling in that fractured region not break down rock to the point that it travels up the return pipe or begins to clog the inlet?
I imagined a closed heat exchanger would be able to be placed in hole but of course it would be hard to fit a large/long enough one when you're only dealing with 300-400F...
What are the pipes made of - a stainless steel or mild steel? I imagine a sCO2 turbine would make it possible to extract adequate heat from the hole with a closed loop heat exchanger, maybe even with one hole, using supercritical CO2 as the working fluid. Then, you don't have any water consumption but a large ambient radiator.
With an unfractured region filled with oil or something, you could possibly still get adequate heat transfer through the heat exchanger for comparable electrical generation due to the relatively high efficiency of a sCO2 turbine compared to steam... less heat but comparable electricity... and much smaller turbinonachinery... and no water.
Interesting, I have no idea. 🤷🏼 Favoriting so hopefully someone from the industry jumps in and adds their thoughts. Thanks for sharing!
What does it cost per kWh compared to coal, oil, gas, wind and solar?
"Earth-Shattering Clean Energy Source Discovered"
Let us not shatter the Earth.
Great video but this is also fracking, so calling it "Clean Energy" feels misleading.
This method creates basically the same issues as fracking 💀
"Economically viable" is usually not "Environmentally sustainable"
So what is clean energy then?
@@TheDailyConversation good question! oversimplified it would be one that doesn't generate significant environmental damage. Even solar and hydro can be "dirty" when done improperly.
But fracking is well known by ecologist for their multiple damages to the environment, very often severe and irrevesible. From pulling groundwater to causing earthquakes and sink holes.
Geothermal can be a great source of energy when done in a closed loop. Using fracking to simplify the process and reduce costs it's what makes it a problem.
Fracking aside, thanks for the great video! Greetings from NYC 👋
Iceland has the potential to create hydrogen fuel from their excess GT energy and export it for cash. I believe parts of Japan and Indonesia can do the same.
Indeed, developments in hydrogen sound very promising as well.
I Say Directional Drill.
For Example :-
Drill Two Holes at an Angle so They Intersect Deep in the Hot Zone.
Sure this Requires Accuracy and Clever Drilling.
Once You Perfect this Method, You can Parallel Drill for More Capacity.
Sounds good, but how is that different from what Fervo is doing?
@TheDailyConversation You have to watch the Video.
This is nuts. The canadian firm That is drilling a closed loop Is a much better solution. Modifying the earth when you could just drill thru with a sealed system is a crazy way to go about it.
How do we get projects started in my home state of Montana? I think this technology is amazing and we are located in the "hot rock" zone. What can I do as an advocate? What can YOU do to help me?
Contact your congressperson, senator, and governor and ask if they’re aware of this development.
Geothermal power accounts for close to 50% of power production in Kenya
So what are current and target estimates of this type of energy source? Is this really practical yet or are there still major obstacles to overcome?
Geothermal has always been nice when there is easy access but too costly to expend effort. I don't think anyone wants to pay gasoline prices for electricity, wind and solar by comparison seems cheaper although efficient and cheap storage is still needed to be 24/7/365.
See graph at ua-cam.com/video/jxICYjBEsvo/v-deo.html&si=0seQT0U7HzxmZzvC
No, not really any obstacles as I see it when done smartly and by the book, just scale and streamlining the finding of new rock/heat zones to maximize generation-which should be plentiful. Good thing we know how to drill, baby drill! Plus we have plenty of rigs, which can be reused (as can their crews).
Geothermal, hydro, solar, wind are all good but the future of reliable energy is nuclear.
Always be aware of the eco-zealots and their ability to find specious arguments to impede progress.
How are you not going to repeat the problems as in Austin TX
I would like to see this just outside Yellowstone park
So the big breakthrough is fracking?
When the government funding slows down, so too will the development of this so-called significant resource.
Should it slow down?
Interesting, looks like they are leveraging all the fracking technology developed in the oil and gas industry.
Watched a documentary a decade ago about this type of geothermal rock in most of Australia and yet nothing about it being developed . Why??
1: Australian politicians are idiots thoroughly bribed by the coal industry so even if some company wanted to invest their permits might have been denied.
2: The reason this is now in the news are the new drilling techniques that allow for deeper wells and better access to the underground heat. Lower costs make geothermal viable enough to compete with solar and wind. Australia is great place for wind and solar so there would have been little reason to focus on geothermal.
Id rather have EGS than ESG
More destruction of clean fresh water, also it sounds like fracking which I thought environmentalists hated.
California's renewable adoption is slowing down
I still don't understand why ThermoPhotoVoltaics are not the answer. You drill. You drop a string of TPV cells into the hole connected to a high voltage power cable. You seal the hole. Tranformer..Plug in.
That sounds pretty efficient!
Lets see "Fracking" what could possibly go wrong?🙃
Found one ! That was easy. Job done. ???
Bananas in Iceland, ice cream in Puerto Rico
Basically fraking for geothermals
Oh! It’s fracking. Isn’t that such a bad idea?
so if you hit a magma vein, you get a volcano?
Bingo!
Deadly blowouts of High perisher steam
Oy! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blowout_(well_drilling)
What’s up with the ending of this video lol
So…. Let’s drill and puncture the earth’s crust so we can have MORE earthquakes. Human “smarts” will cause more disasters… which won’t be acknowledged until it’s too late.
Insane!!!! Geo-thermal energy is not new.and neither is fracking.
But doing them together this way is!
@ I won’t be buying a home in that area,it will fall into a sinkhole
Soil fraking is not a solution
So 100% or just put in new designed nuclear reactors in every state and could do it within a few years. Then monkey around with this stuff.
Green fracking??? Ha ha ha
Basically robbing heat from the planet . By doing that we are asking for some huge tectonic ramifications . If we use the heat that controls our geomagnetic stability . By in effect cooling the core of of the earth , A very bad idea .If we cool the core by a proliferation of geothermal plants . The core will shrink every so slightly which will force the crust to react violently . We will see plate tectonics like what have never seen by man .I think we need to investigate this possibility .thoroughly .
Theentirecalaforniacouldbepoweredbygeothermalandsolarenergythatwouldbeincredibleandtheworldcanlearnfromit
The US should be investing money into nuclear energy, build new power plants and refurbish older ones
I really like nuclear energy. We should continue planning to build out a lot more of it. But I have to admit EGS looks like it has the potential to compete very strongly against nuclear, at least as it exists in the US.
That said, this is still very unproven tech at the scales needed. It might not scale as well as hoped. So we should continue on both tracks.
I agree, however this had the added benefit of virtually no risk, especially if it becomes a military target by foreign saboteurs
Y'all love that nuclear till something goes wrong 😂...
Nuclear energy has a bad reputation, partly on purpose, partly by accident.
Overnight capital cost of advanced nuclear or SMR power plants range quite high $7,800/kW+. Although it has a high capacity factor, it is not the most ideal method to invest billions into new power plants. We should be worried about refurbishing and extending the life of existing nuclear plants, and invest into battery technology to improve solar use, geothermal, and other technologies that we can forecast becoming cheaper. Not fully against you here though.
What about the plasma drill I heard of?
Sounds and looks awesome. I’m skeptical about the energy required to run. But it would be generating a lot of energy going so deep/hot!
From 2 min 40 sec. starts terrible, unnecessary disturbing music. These programs are watched by many people that do not speak english at home.Remove that music.
Ha! Sorry. This is my primary challenge when taking this approach: many, many of the clips I’m using contain pretty terrible audio and/or really bad background music, forcing me to choose between dropping the clip altogether or doing my best to integrate it with the rest of the video’s audio score. I loved what the Governor said and thought it needed to be in, but it sounds like I got this call wrong to you. I’ll be better 😝
Not first time and fracking is not a fix. There is already better fixes than this.... garbage waste of money.... compared to what is already there....
You guys need permission from me.
Are you a rock?
@TheDailyConversation no but they used my invention for energy recovery.
Lol
Geothermal energy is dumb, for many reasons, pumping massive amounts of water, which we don’t have excess of, into the ground, to get steam, is incredibly expensive. Solar + battery storage is the cheapest, most reliable power production. It doesn’t rain or snow everyday, yep, we have water on constant demand via storage.
In the video they state 95% of the water is re-used. Aren't the costs for battery and solar panel replacement and maintenance higher than pipe maintenance + that 5 percent water? We also don't have excess nickel, cobalt, lithium, ...
95% of water is captured. Fervo uses all electric equipment. I agree we should maximize solar+battery if it ends up being cheaper and less environmentally costly, but solar and battery use a lot of rare earths (as other commenters have mentioned).
John Malkovich
Who?
Wouldn't solar be cheaper?
I suggest that this should not be a long term (>20 year) as it may disrupt the earth thermal regulation? Sun base solutions seems more sensible and responsible.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Solar panels relied on rare metals and dirty mining practices, and even dirtier smelting processes.
Geo thermal is much more environmentally friendly
No, humans couldnt put a dent in earths internal heat even if we tried
Good point!
👍
Safe😂.
Bla bla bla...
Bunch of bs
What do you propose?
you keep breaking up the underground, its going to be a problem.
Buoyancy harnessing lead zeppelin Godzilla rises from the deep the chain breaker