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

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177 points mooreds | 1 comments | 06 Sep 25 20:26 UTC | HN request time: 0.32s | source
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its-kostya ◴[06 Sep 25 21:13 UTC] No.45152894[source]▶
Today I discovered that geothermal energy is a thing, cool! An immediate question that comes to mind is how much "energy potential" does the earth store and "how is it generated"? I'd imagine something about gravity or magnetic waves that move the iron* core and stuff. Anyone know some resources I can read more about this?
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giggyhack ◴[06 Sep 25 21:19 UTC] No.45152938[source]▶
Assuming we can drill deep enough and harness it, the thermal energy in the earth's crust is essentially infinite.
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bbarnett ◴[06 Sep 25 21:23 UTC] No.45152975[source]▶
People said "the Earth is too big, human activity can't change the climate". Now look at where we are.

I wonder, if we draw enough heat out... would the core cool enough to shrink? And if so, would the crust collapse to the new size?

Pure speculation of course, but did the first guy burning coal know the outcome?

Anyhow, I love geothermal, think you're right, but just got tweaked on the word "infinite".

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stevage ◴[06 Sep 25 22:00 UTC] No.45153268[source]▶
There is also the issue that using geothermal energy can cause earthquakes.
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1. 0xDEAFBEAD ◴[07 Sep 25 03:41 UTC] No.45155202[source]▶
Here are some links I found related to this

Pro-geothermal position: https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/producing-clean-energy-ca...

Anti-geothermal position: https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2019/05/lessons-south-kore...

My conclusion: Geothermal makes research into plate tectonics and earthquake mitigation considerably more valuable, so we can figure out how to do it in a way that reduces earthquakes rather than creating them.