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> figure out some engineering technique for dissipating the magma chamber heat. There have been several proposals, some of which even allow for using the heat
by BjoernKW 9y ago
> figure out some engineering technique for dissipating the magma chamber heat.
There have been several proposals, some of which even allow for using the heat for generating electricity.
IIRC the problem with these approaches is that they take a few hundred years to be completed because you can’t simply drill the magma chamber but rather have to advance very slowly and carefully.
A few hundred years unfortunately seems to be too large a timeframe for politics to pursue this huge undertaking in earnest.
- rbanffy 9y agoThere is an enormous amount of heat stored in there and the amount to be extracted to make any significant difference is probably more than the entire planetary demand. The good news is that we don't need to drill to the magma chamber unless we want to also dig a lava channel to the nearest ocean (2300km if you don't feel like digging through mountains, or about 1000km to Oregon's coast if you are into digging), but just somewhere near that's hot enough to boil water at some pressure. I don't see much support for doing it in a preservation area, however. In CA, the heat could be used to power sea-water desalination, if someone is willing to build the large 270km long pipe.
- akeck 9y agoOr a superconducting power line to the coast.
- rbanffy 9y agoYou'd need to convert heat into electricity for that. Not sure how efficient modern plants are, but if you pump sea water into the well to get steam, you can process the steam for desalination after it turns the turbines. You'll need the pipes to send the salt water back into the ocean.