4 ms·
The brine in the permeable rock is heated by radiation from the earth's core. It is pumped to surface, power generated, then injected back into the earth at a s
by rfrey 6y ago
The brine in the permeable rock is heated by radiation from the earth's core. It is pumped to surface, power generated, then injected back into the earth at a sufficient distance, so that by the time it flows back to the extraction well it will have been re-heated to the original temperature.
So no, the subsurface will not cool over time (except with some crackpot "technologies" like one mentioned towards the end of the article that rhymes with "never"). It's actually harnessing the radiation of the earth's geology.
There are some places where power is extracted faster than the geology can support. In those cases electrical generation tapers off. This is happening in Turkey for example. But it's because of greed, not because of anything inherent in the technology.
- ggm 6y agoThanks. I thought it was that some prior radiative heat was being consumed, and wasn't being refreshed by deep water brine. Maybe thats what you said: the rate of extraction can exceed the rate of renewal?
- rfrey 6y agoYes, extraction can easily exceed renewal rates. Good resource management is key to longevity.
- ggm 6y agoI was (I think) referring to the cooper basin project. It was non-viable on LCOE given transmission costs and rate of extraction. I can't find the remediation story links, maybe confused this with other energy/fracking problems, but the do note the fracks made mag 3.7 earthquakes, which may have been played up as a risk-side problem.