4 ms·
I understand using geothermal as a heat battery where the in/out is balanced over time (like seasonal heat storage) but I'm skeptical we understand enough about
by jasonthorsness 1y ago
I understand using geothermal as a heat battery where the in/out is balanced over time (like seasonal heat storage) but I'm skeptical we understand enough about the structure under the earth to keep pure extraction working over time and not just cool everything down.
Solar + large-scale energy storage seems like the future
- drozycki 1y agoThere are 13 million exajoules (3,611,400,000 TWh) of energy within a couple of miles of the earth's surface [0], enough to cover 100% of 2023 worldwide energy use (181,000 TWh [1]) for 20,000 years. Its environmental footprint is non-negligible but probably better than solar+storage per unit energy generated. It uses 5% of the land area and provides base load. [0] https://energy.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/MITEI-The-Future-of-Geothermal-Energy.pdf https://energy.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/MITEI-The-... (see section 2 on page 1-4) [1] https://ourworldindata.org/energy-production-consumption https://ourworldindata.org/energy-production-consumption
- pfdietz 1y agoAnd it works even better at high latitude, the opposite of solar.