2 ms·
Educated guess: it's very hard. A pipe that long would be subject to break down every time the earth moves a bit. Fixing said leak would requires stopping the
by sametmax 8y ago
Educated guess: it's very hard.
A pipe that long would be subject to break down every time the earth moves a bit. Fixing said leak would requires stopping the use of the pipe completely.
As 300 C is not that a huge temperature, the energy to pump the water may also cost a lot compare to the energy you get out of it.
I'm not saying we should not try, but it seems a great challenge. And we don't have the motivation of creating an atomic bomb to drive it.
- lb1lf 8y agoWith only a very tenous grasp on the basics of fluid mechanics and thermodynamics, I'd suspect it is simply a lot more cost effective to drive a significantly larger volume of water through a significantly shallower (hence, lower temperature - but cheaper to drill, maintain and force water through) well to reap the same amount of energy. Assuming reasonable heat exchange efficiencies, you'd do as well with 1000m^3/hour at a 20 degree differential as you would with 100m^3/hour at a 200 degree differential. Or am I missing something?
- sametmax 8y agoYes, but if you can turn the water into steam you don't have to pump it back as much. So you leverage gravity in, density out. I have no idea if that evens out though.