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Germany maybe found a new source of renewable energy
- markkitti 3mo agoThey found some potential geothermal wells near where they were previously mining.
- lantry 3mo agoTitle makes it sound like a new method of generating energy was discovered, but really the article is about using geothermal in a new location. > The development of medium-deep (>400 m) and deep geothermal reservoirs (> 1,500 m) could be a partial solution to provide renewable heat to single buildings, residential or commercial neighbourhoods, or districts of the city of Aachen via the existing district heating network.
- froh42 3mo agoTa-daa. That happens. They found some new geothermal source in Munich as well after I moved into the place I'm in now. It turned out it was very viable. Nowadays the heat in my apartment is mainly geothermal (The district heating network in my neighborhood has been converted to geothermal energy over the past 10 years.)
- leonidasrup 3mo agoMunich sits on a massive geothermal aquifer system (the Molasse Basin) "Medium-deep geothermal resources in the Molasse Basin: A geological, techno-economic, and ecological study of large-scale heat pump integration" https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148125008092 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096014812... Tapping a geothermal aquifer system is much easier than to get useful quantities of heat from dry rock, because in most places the thermal conductivity of rock is very low. "The enthusiasm in the research community is justified by the vast extent of the energy supply and the low environmental impact of the method, however significant breakthroughs will be required to make this a commercial energy resource." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_dry_rock_geothermal_energy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_dry_rock_geothermal_energy
- mtoner23 3mo agoHopefully Germany doesn't ban geothermal like they did with nuclear and fracking
- skimmed 3mo agoPutting nuclear and fracking on the same level is wild.
- Kichererbsen 3mo agoPutting nuclear and fracking next to each other is also wild. Geographically.
- rob74 3mo agoWhy? Nuclear has extremely serious, but very rare accidents, while fracking has less serious (as in, fewer people affected) accidents more frequently. I would say if you even it out, they're comparable...
- dyauspitr 3mo agoFracking is not like nuclear
- nkmnz 3mo agoBut they were cancelled for similar reasons based on fears fueled by Russian propaganda.
- yanko 3mo agoOpening survival north stream single pipe for Russian gas is no brain solution. Europe break records importing relabeled Russian gas last month anyway
- scotty79 3mo agoIt's way better to buy re-labelled, because russia earns less from that when intermediaries take their cut, because it's buyers market.
- atwrk 3mo agoThe no brain solution is to electrify everything and switch legacy infrastructure to renewables, just like China does. Gas usage is down in the EU anyway.
- c0l0 3mo agoLong-term, that's the smart and also necessary move. But it can't be done overnight, and the transition has its significant challenges. I hope they don't mess it up it and will address these problems rationally - but given how most EU leaders have acted over these past few years, I remain painfully unconvinced that they will.
- tapoxi 3mo agoIsn't solar the fastest energy source to spin up? Just take them out of the crate, put them on racks, tie them to the grid.
- c0l0 3mo agoI guess it is, but solar can only be part of the answer: You need a solid plan (and all the infrastructure that implementing this plan involves) for when the sun does not shine, because in the more northern parts of Europe especially, energy consumption is highest during seasons in which sunlight is (relatively) scarce. Also, "the grid" cannot absorb any amount of solar energy - so if you choose to address (at least parts) of the above challenge with a photovoltaic build-out that results in massive excess capacity during summer, there needs to be a plan (and again, its implementation) to handle that.
- IceHegel 3mo agoI have always wondered about the origins of the anti nuclear opinion of Germans. It has Cold War origins to be sure, but what kind? I suspect American intelligence has been supporting the anti nuclear movement for some time, for non-proliferation reasons - and not just in Germany. I certainly would be, if I ran the State Department.
- toenail 3mo agoIt's mostly fear after Chernobyl, fueled by environmental groups and the Green party primarily.
- SoftTalker 3mo agoWeren't the anti-nuke hippies already quite a force before that? Pete Seeger wrote his anti-nuke spin-off of "Acres of Clams" in the 1970s I think. Not specific to Germany but there's been a very vocal anti-nuke movement almost since the beginning. They were pretty successful in ending new nuclear generating plant construction in the USA also.
- nmehner 3mo agoYes, the free republic of wendland was established in 1980: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Republic_of_Wendland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Republic_of_Wendland The battle of brokdorf was also in the 80ies: https://www.helmut-schmidt.de/en/publications/detail/the-battle-of-brokdorf-was-also-a-fight-for-basic-democratic-rights https://www.helmut-schmidt.de/en/publications/detail/the-bat...
- sajithdilshan 3mo agoOnce I had a discussion with a German that is a strong supporter of the green party and his argument against nuclear power was the nuclear waste and no proper was of disposing it and also building new nuclear power plants are expensive and take a long time. Then I did a deep research and created a PDF and pointed out that there has been many advances of re-using spent-nuclear fuel and minimize the environmental impact since 1980s and also countries like China has been using a cleaver way of using a standardized model of building power plants to cut cost, etc. but he didn't want to accept it as if he was almost brainwashed.
- josefritzishere 3mo agoGeothermal is great, but it's not new. Is this just a misleading headline?
- atmosx 3mo agoI thought they found vibranium. Shame…
- tetris11 3mo ago"Staufen darf nicht zerbrechen!"
- sandalwarrior 3mo agoThey found it in the pockets of the taxpayers.
- senectus1 3mo agocuriousity question: does removing the heat from a geothermal well create unintendeed side effects?
- mDyJzDPmBdG 3mo agoUnlikely. If we are able to pull too much heat from crust it will make those geothermal plants inoperable (due to too low temperature), in that localized spot, long before we are able to impact wider area or deeper layers.
- panzi 3mo agoHere a German podcast episode not about this publication, but in general about geothermal power in Germany: https://erdeumwelt.podigee.io/11-erdwarme https://erdeumwelt.podigee.io/11-erdwarme If you speak German it's very interesting. Sounds like we should build more geothermal power plants.