Utah's hottest new power source is 15k feet below the ground

Re:Utah's hottest new power source is 15k feet below the ground by jandrewrogers on Saturday September 06, 2025 @06:13PM (#45153367)

Not really an issue in the US at least. Their primary geothermal basins already have earthquakes far stronger than any that might be triggered by fluid injection. They also have earthquake swarms due to natural circulation of geothermal fluids in some of these areas.

It is mostly an issue in places like Europe that do not have a history of strong earthquakes and therefore lack seismic resistance civil engineering. There are a few places like that in the US (e.g. New England) where a minor M5 earthquake can cause damage but those don't overlap with areas with high geothermal potential.

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Re:Utah's hottest new power source is 15k feet below the ground by loeg on Saturday September 06, 2025 @09:18PM (#45154433)

The deep geothermal people seem to think it can be used ~anywhere, not just traditional geothermal basins.

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Re:Utah's hottest new power source is 15k feet below the ground by jandrewrogers on Saturday September 06, 2025 @10:11PM (#45154749)

For sure! I’ve been following this tech for decades. The advantage of high-quality geothermal basins is maximizing the ROI and efficiency of the first installations, which places the product in the best possible light for marketing purposes. It also provides a comparison against more conventional geothermal power generation which is deployed in the same environment.

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