The time has finally come for geothermal energy

I've always been curious why a cost-effective widespread implementation of geothermal energy has never been considered a holy grail of energy production, at least not in the public debate. Much of the discussion is so focussed on nuclear fusion, which seems so much harder and less likely to be reliable.

> a holy grail of energy production

Since you're comparing it to nuclear, I'm assuming you mean electricity production here, not energy production?

It's always worth remembering that electricity only accounts for ~20% of global energy consumption (in the US it's closer to 33%).

I suspect people confuse these two because in a residential context electricity plays a huge part of our energy usage, but as a whole it's a smaller part of total energy usage than most people imagine.

But any serious discussion of renewable energy should be careful not to make this very significant error.

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory publishes a great diagram of US energy use: https://flowcharts.llnl.gov/sites/flowcharts/files/2024-12/e...

What does "Rejected Energy" mean in that graph?

Great chart, by the way.

I live in a part of the world that is far below freezing for a significant portion of the year. Thus a large portion of my annual energy usage goes into not freezing to death.

When I drive my daughter to school when it’s -40 fucking degrees, a lot of the energy I use goes into heating my vehicle, swearing, moving and swearing. But this energy also leaks through my windshield, through my exhaust system and through my engine. This energy (heat) doesn’t provide any benefit to anyone and just leaks out into the atmosphere (which we’ve already established is trying to kill me).

That’s rejected energy. Or when it’s below -40, rejected motherfucking energy. :)

A IC car’s heating system normally taps into the engine’s cooling system, so that heat is mostly free. In a pinch you can actually turn the heater on full to help cool the radiator.

I had to do that when my radiator sprang a leak on the freeway and the engine heat kept creeping up. Unfortunately it was late summer and not at all pleasant.

I managed to get to a gas station with some stop leak in stock... If they didn't, I was ready to crack an egg in it.