Re:Geothermal power is a climate moon shot beneath our feet
by micro2588 on Sunday March 02, 2025 @06:12PM
(#43236300)
You are right there is no getting around that relatively low grade heat in geothermal is a big barrier for scaling in terms of energy production. Binary /organic rankine cycle geothermal plants used for these low / medium temperature resources operate at ~10% efficiency. Dry / flash steam resources are higher but produce waste in terms of emitted GHG and / or crap in the geothermal brine.
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Re:Geothermal power is a climate moon shot beneath our feet
by kragen on Sunday March 02, 2025 @06:17PM
(#43236332)
Deep geothermal promises to provide what is usually considered high-grade heat (800+°), but what I'm trying to understand is how cheaply you can convert that high-grade heat into electricity, because the answer seems to be "far too expensively to be competitive with wind and solar".
Re:Geothermal power is a climate moon shot beneath our feet
by micro2588 on Sunday March 02, 2025 @07:07PM
(#43236742)
Supercritical geothermal is similar to talking about the economics of fusion. There is a DOE enhanced geothermal test site near the Newberry Volcano in central Oregon which has temperatures close to this range at reachable depths. That is more of a demonstration site for drilling technology.
Re:Geothermal power is a climate moon shot beneath our feet
by kragen on Sunday March 02, 2025 @07:46PM
(#43237057)
Yes, but if (as I am claiming) there's no way to economically turn heat into electricity, it's irrelevant whether supercritical geothermal steam costs trillions of dollars per borehole or is free; either way it's uneconomic as a source of electricity.