3 ms·
You probably do cool down the surrounding area. But my guess is that the 1w/m² quoted by GP is no where near the energy we get from the sun. Quick Google says
by jopsen 2y ago
You probably do cool down the surrounding area.
But my guess is that the 1w/m² quoted by GP is no where near the energy we get from the sun. Quick Google says sunlight in the order of 1kw/m² (sure that's dependent on where you are, it sun doesn't shine at night, but we're off by 3 orders of magnitude here).
So probably it'll have no effect on surface temperature.
Besides, the heat is mostly released anyways when driving a steam turbine, and the electricity also becomes heat, in your computer or whatever.
- Retric 2y agoPulling heat from km below the surface isn’t going to reduce surface temperature by 1w/m2, but ~0.001/m2 over thousands of years. Thus the issue is warming the area more so than cooling it. What matters here is the recharge rate, but all power plants have a finite lifespan. You can simply move somewhere else up to the point you run out of untapped geothermal energy across the surface of the earth which is a rather crazy number.