Geo-thermal energy

I saw a short segment about geothermal energy during a documentary a few weeks ago and since then I've been doing alot of thinking on it. I typed the term into google and came to the US Dept. of Energy's website on it:

Geothermal Energy Basics

Basically the idea is that the earth's heat below the crust is more than suitable to meet all our energy needs for billions of years. It won't run out until the earth burns out or the sun explodes.

The basic problem right now is how to tap this resource. but it seems energy companies aren't willing to explore developing technology to tap this resource, essentially beacuse it is an "infinite" resource and hence not very profitable esp after the investment to develop it...

My idea is that we should look at areas that have alot of volcanoes since this is where the heat of the earth comes closest to the surface and where we can learn to develop preliminary technology to tap this.

The United States was once and maybe still is the true master of developing technology. We perfected mining, nuclear energy, put men on the moon and invented the internet.

It seems like this is something we as a nation should undertake. It would be great for our economy and the world economy. Yeah we would lose some jobs as we switched technology, but shit, I don't see anyone complaining about whalers or candlestick makers or rope walkers going out of business...

so what are you guys ideas on this? If I was rich, this is something I would want to invest in...

Geothermal energy is the shiiiiiit....

Too bad there's no money in it. We need like a nonprofit scientific foundation that can take donations for all of these noble causes.

WHAT?? let's all pitch in... I got 5 on it. Spread the word , pitch in 5 beans per head. Do the math, get the gear. BAM...free light bills for everybody. I'll start the collection PM me for a P.O Box to send the cash.

peace.

Dawood

CEO of the

Geothermal energy trust fund

for free light bills.

http://www.geothermaltrustfund.com

funny funny...

it would be nice if that actually happened though.

who can make this shit happen? hmm...

maybe we can get bruce sterling to start it up or something...

There are quite a few resources of energy available naturally that aren't being utilized for the sole reason that it wouldn't make anyone money. I remember hearing something about there being enough carbon in the reefs of some areas of ocean to provde enough power to run the world.

Also, Nikolai Tesla, an inventor around the time of Edison, claimed that there was enough electical energy in the Earth's ionosphere to power the entire Earth if the proper harnessing towers were constructed. Needless to say, that proposal was thrown out when fuel companies got word of it.

there are so many free energy sources on earth that we havent utilized properly. wind power, tidal energy, geothermal, solar...

yeah, solar power is a good option for people who own a house and have a little cheeze to set it up.

Yeah we won't see it in our lifetimes, but I bet it will be a reality someday...

^^^ not if big buisness can help it!

Wait. So where talking about drilling 100 mile deep holes into the ground?

That won't cause any earthquakes.

Originally posted by ODS-1@Dec 13 2005, 02:16 PM

Wait. So where talking about drilling 100 mile deep holes into the ground?

That won't cause any earthquakes.

Quoted post

......Are you serious?

Big-oil will never let a viable alternative energy source come into being, unless:

1) It's more profitable for them than oil.

2) They're the ones benefitting.

Point out to me where I talked about big oil.

Originally posted by ODS-1@Dec 13 2005, 07:16 PM

Wait. So where talking about drilling 100 mile deep holes into the ground?

That won't cause any earthquakes.

Quoted post

I study geology alot as a hobby and professionally for work related shit. I don't think a little narrow round hole in the ground will cause earthquakes. My idea though was to drill holes into volcanoes, which might cause problems, but hey lets invest our (when I mean ours I mean our GNP) profits into finding out this shit and building the new economy than wasting money trying to keep the old economy alive. It would create more jobs and profits in the LONG run I think...but thats the problemo right there. Most companies only think about short term income and profits, namely 2-5 years... which is why all our national economy is going to India and China. To maintain ourselves as the international leader we need to create the new economy, which we somewhat started with the computer and internet/information economy...and we now do with the new energy industry...

Originally posted by John Birch@Dec 12 2005, 10:24 PM

Yeah we won't see it in our lifetimes, but I bet it will be a reality someday...

Quoted post

Originally posted by ODS-1@Dec 13 2005, 04:44 PM

Point out to me where I talked about big oil.

Quoted post

I was talking about the idea of 100 mile deep holes triggering earthquakes, I should have spaced things differently.

you can get a geothermal furnace/air conditioner for 20,000 usd.

Originally posted by John Birch+Dec 13 2005, 10:23 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (John Birch - Dec 13 2005, 10:23 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteBegin-ODS-1@Dec 13 2005, 07:16 PM

Wait. So where talking about drilling 100 mile deep holes into the ground?

That won't cause any earthquakes.

Quoted post

I study geology alot as a hobby and professionally for work related shit. I don't think a little narrow round hole in the ground will cause earthquakes. My idea though was to drill holes into volcanoes, which might cause problems, but hey lets invest our (when I mean ours I mean our GNP) profits into finding out this shit and building the new economy than wasting money trying to keep the old economy alive. It would create more jobs and profits in the LONG run I think...but thats the problemo right there. Most companies only think about short term income and profits, namely 2-5 years... which is why all our national economy is going to India and China. To maintain ourselves as the international leader we need to create the new economy, which we somewhat started with the computer and internet/information economy...and we now do with the new energy industry...

[/b]

It's not just the holes they dig, It's also the huge gaping empty space that is taking place of the oil that used to be there. the Oil is not replenishing itself. It doesnt just grow back. Once it's gone , theres a hole left there. This is a big factor in these earthquakes.

yeah all oil really is, is layers and layers of dead organic (usually a awamp/marsh land etc) matter...as more shit builds over it over millions of years, it get pushed lower and lower into the crust...eventually it gets to the point where geo-thermal heat from the core causes a chemical change and converts it to oil (over-simplified explanation)...coal, natural gas etc are similar... so if you think about it, oil is kinda the middle man in what we want...if we can drill deeper than oil then maybe we can tap the geothermal source that creates the oil in the first place...but I just saw this documentry about deep drilling and damn that shits hard...

if we dig deep enough we can get to china and use their excess population as fuel.

Originally posted by Dawood@Dec 15 2005, 09:27 PM

 

It's not just the holes they dig, It's also the huge gaping empty space that is taking place of the oil that used to be there. the Oil is not replenishing itself. It doesnt just grow back. Once it's gone , theres a hole left there. This is a big factor in these earthquakes.

Quoted post

Yo, we can fill them up with garbage. Fucking BAM, landfill space.

I should be rich.

Originally posted by gasfacevictm@Jan 4 2006, 10:35 AM

if we dig deep enough we can get to china and use their excess population as fuel.

Quoted post

Oh Lord!

I just wanted to bump this, since Bush tonight in the SOTU mentioned energy independence, but wanted to point out he failed to mention the exploration and development of geo-thermal energy, potentially cheaper and safer than nuclear, which he did mention...

Yes let's start fucking with the earth's underground core.... because that has absolutley no reprocussions.

^You make a good point - lets stick to messing up the air that way when we can no longer breathe we can escape to our stable underground bunker...

ok I've been doing research all day between watching the super bowl and eating/drinking/smoking...

after studying geo-thermal I'm most interested in the exploration and pursuit of MAGMA ENERGY sources

Magma is the molten or partially

molten rock that is found at depths

between three and 10 kilometres

below the Earth's crust and reaches

temperatures up to 1200°C. While

some magma resources are at

accessible depths, a practical means

of extracting magma energy has yet to

be developed.

http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/register/p00395aa.pdf

I dont know how many of you remeber the wing turbines, but my feeling is that geothermal energy would follow in suit. Gaining scientific popularity for a short period of time until its later discovered that the new "clean" energy source is actually dangerous or detrimental to the enviroment. Our best bet in clean energy is hydrogen fuel cells and solar energy. Israel is developing a new methods of solar energy on a regular basis. click here as well as some other countries like Germany and Switzerland.

Wasnt there an Ernst Stavro Blofeld who explored the uses volcanos back in the late 60's? I don't remembering it going well.

I caught that speech Bush made about independent fuel sources, which seemed more like he wanted America to be okay with him pissing off Hugo Chavez than what kind of shit we can make cars run on (he's a "mountain bike guy"), and it gave him an excuse to talk about grass on television. Fuckin a.

If you're a Californian, expect CalTrans to run off ethanol E85 (corn) and most public transportation before 2010. General Motors is a fan too. All their new cars will be able to run off either corn or gas at any ratio, soon. For the dudes not into sci fi, E85's a few points higher than the ole petrol so it's good news to motorheads, you just gotta be a fan of the Solstice or some other GM bucket to get the full advantage of corn. Crazy shit these days, plastic out of oranges, gas out of corn, grass, what the fuck ever...

I hear they're looking into serious wind power too in the northern part of the country too. Not a bad idea either, weather's been tearing Oregon a new ass.

Any bets on what the next gold/salt/united fruit co/oil will be? Nike's?

making fuel from switchgrass or corn is inefficient though... It takes almost as much energy (from electricity, oli, gas, coal) to produce fuel from those sources you mentioned...

I read some statistics on energy use and how much potential we have from diffrent sources. It took me a few to figure them out, so I will post soon...

Here's to keep the thread up to date. I hate this guy. I really really HATE this guy.

source: http://mathaba.net/0_index.shtml?x=508320

"One day after President Bush vowed to reduce America's dependence on Middle East oil by cutting imports from there 75 percent by 2025, his energy secretary and national economic adviser said Wednesday that the president didn't mean it literally."

CAN YOU DO THAT?!

yeah^^^^ I heard that...fucking pathetic... I guess we were to understand what he meant as "we need to increase our energy demand to about 75% of what the middle east supplies"...so what he weas saying was not to decrease supply and demand from the middle east, but to increase overall supply and demand...