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This might be an incredible way to generate cheap energy. I lived in a remote location called Manikaran in Himalayas in India. It is a small town with limited r
by tn13 10y ago
This might be an incredible way to generate cheap energy. I lived in a remote location called Manikaran in Himalayas in India. It is a small town with limited resources but has an incredibly hot water spring. The locals have built pipelines that connect all major establishment with this boiling hot water which is then used to cook, soak and simply bath or heat up rooms.
The motel like place I stayed in had created an exposed pipe network in the room which emitted heat from this water. Don't want heat ? Just close the tap. Less heat turn the tap a little bit :D
- rm_-rf_slash 10y agoYou may have missed the point of this article. The northeastern United States is very geologically stable, so any geothermal energy would have to come by going very, very deep underground. We don't have any hot springs around here. So even if this project works out and eliminates a lot of future carbon emissions, it will hardly be considered cheap.
- tn13 10y agoI know. I am not saying this is simple. But if sufficient breakthroughs are achieved we might as well do better than state of art solar.
- iaw 10y agoNormally I agree with your assessments but I don't think you're right on this one. Presuming geothermal wells would have a >100 year lifespan with minimal upkeep the upfront costs may be very large but the long-term cost per/MW extracted would go close to zero because of the virtually non-existent marginal costs for operating geothermal wells. Ignoring externalities created by using fossil fuels for heating (pollution, corruption, etc.), if this technique is sound it could be a more financially sensible decision than any alternative.
- Spooky23 10y agoThe problem is that the capital cost is very high and since you're not really capturing a cash flow, its hard to finance.