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Cape Station, future home of an enhanced geothermal power plant, in Utah

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177 points mooreds | 4 comments | 06 Sep 25 20:26 UTC | HN request time: 0.599s | source
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ericfr11 ◴[06 Sep 25 21:24 UTC] No.45152982[source]▶
It's been very common in Europe for years. People even have individual heat pump at home. US is so much behind on new technologies
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Ozarkian ◴[06 Sep 25 21:27 UTC] No.45153016[source]▶
You didn't understand the article. A home heat pump isn't a power source.
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foobarian ◴[06 Sep 25 21:45 UTC] No.45153158[source]▶
Nit: yes, home geothermal is a power source, technically. But yea not in the way an electrical generation plant is.
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1. lajy ◴[06 Sep 25 22:05 UTC] No.45153294[source]▶
Heat pump != Geothermal energy generation, or any energy generation at that

Home geothermal /could/ be a power source, sure, but I do not believe that’s what OP intended to say when mentioning heat pumps. I’d be pretty surprised if it was becoming common in Europe to have home geothermal

A heat pump (which are more common in Europe, but they’re gaining popularity in the US) is essentially a reversible air conditioner that can take advantage of the latent energy in the air to move heat very efficiently. They’re a great invention, but they have nothing to do with producing energy

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2. CobrastanJorji ◴[07 Sep 25 00:08 UTC] No.45154038[source]▶
They certainly don't produce electricity. However, if you put in 1 kW of electricity, you might get 5 kW of heat added to your house. So in a sense, it is producing energy.
3. CobrastanJorji ◴[07 Sep 25 00:10 UTC] No.45154054[source]▶
They certainly don't produce electricity, but they do produce energy. You put in 1 kW of electricity, though, and you might get 5 kW of heat added to your house. So in a sense, it is producing energy.

Now, that energy is coming from somewhere else (in this case, the heat of the ground beneath the house or the air outside), but that's true of electrical generators as well.

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4. grosswait ◴[08 Sep 25 00:35 UTC] No.45163638[source]▶
No, it is moving energy. We still obey the laws of thermodynamics in this house.