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> the rock at that depth had been thoroughly fractured and was saturated with water This is what makes me think that drilling to great depths and utilizing the

> the rock at that depth had been thoroughly fractured and was saturated with water This is what makes me think that drilling to great depths and utilizing the energy there for sustainable power generation should be possible. It's just a matter of developing the right drilling technology. How hard can it be?

Piskvorrr 8y ago
Ah, indeed, the dreaded question "How hard can it be?" and its rarely-spoken assumption "that looks simple from my armchair". Well...most of the low-hanging fruit has already been picked, and things that look simple are chock-full of those pesky details that are handwaved away in the birds-eye view. "Just use the right technology," and you have flying cars, strong AI, self-driving vehicles, space elevators and whatnot. How hard can it be?
- stareatgoats 8y ago
  Glad you caught the irony in that comment ;-)
  - Piskvorrr 8y ago
    Somebody should make a reliable sentiment analyser. How hard could that be? ;)
amelius 8y ago
How many Watts would a single such hole generate? And how sustainable would it be?
salty_biscuits 8y ago
Geothermal isn't really sustainable (in the long, long term). The heat is built up due to some special geology, think an insulating blanket. Once you use this heat to make electricity you lower the temperature of the rock and it takes a very, very long time to warm up again.
- stareatgoats 8y ago
  It is sustainable enough under any reasonable scenario, and will in effect mainly just harness some of the heat that already dissipates. As for for rewarming the rock: if the strata that were porous and water filled were found at the appropriate levels this problem would be reduced. One would not need to hydro-shear the rock is normal in EGS plants nowadays (with some inconvenient side-effects - see Basel)[0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_geothermal_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_geothermal_system

Piskvorrr 8y ago

Ah, indeed, the dreaded question "How hard can it be?" and its rarely-spoken assumption "that looks simple from my armchair". Well...most of the low-hanging fruit has already been picked, and things that look simple are chock-full of those pesky details that are handwaved away in the birds-eye view. "Just use the right technology," and you have flying cars, strong AI, self-driving vehicles, space elevators and whatnot. How hard can it be?

stareatgoats 8y ago
Glad you caught the irony in that comment ;-)
- Piskvorrr 8y ago
  Somebody should make a reliable sentiment analyser. How hard could that be? ;)

amelius 8y ago

How many Watts would a single such hole generate? And how sustainable would it be?

salty_biscuits 8y ago

Geothermal isn't really sustainable (in the long, long term). The heat is built up due to some special geology, think an insulating blanket. Once you use this heat to make electricity you lower the temperature of the rock and it takes a very, very long time to warm up again.

stareatgoats 8y ago
It is sustainable enough under any reasonable scenario, and will in effect mainly just harness some of the heat that already dissipates. As for for rewarming the rock: if the strata that were porous and water filled were found at the appropriate levels this problem would be reduced. One would not need to hydro-shear the rock is normal in EGS plants nowadays (with some inconvenient side-effects - see Basel)[0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_geothermal_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_geothermal_system