this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2023
115 points (93.9% liked)

Technology

59312 readers
4683 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
115
There’s enough geothermal energy below ground to power the entire country. Some are trying to tap it — by using techniques from the fracking boom. (www.nytimes.com)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
18 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

There’s enough geothermal energy below ground to power the entire country. Some are trying to tap it — by using techniques from the fracking boom.::The United States has enough geothermal energy to power the entire country. Some are trying to unlock it by using techniques from the fracking boom.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

In a sagebrush valley full of wind turbines and solar panels in western Utah, Tim Latimer gazed up at a very different device he believes could be just as powerful for fighting climate change — maybe even more.

Traditional geothermal plants, which have existed for decades, work by tapping natural hot water reservoirs underground to power turbines that can generate electricity 24 hours a day.

Fervo is using fracking techniques — similar to those used for oil and gas — to crack open dry, hot rock and inject water into the fractures, creating artificial geothermal reservoirs.

Near the town of Milford, Utah, sits the Blundell geothermal plant, surrounded by boiling mud pits, hissing steam vents and the skeletal ruins of a hot springs resort.

The Blundell plant relies on ancient volcanism and quirks of geology: Just below the surface are hot, naturally porous rocks that allow groundwater to percolate and heat up enough to create steam for generating electricity.

While enhanced geothermal could, in theory, work anywhere, the best resources are on federal land, where regulatory reviews take years and it’s often easier to win permission for oil and gas drilling because of exemptions won by fossil fuel companies.

The original article contains 1,901 words, the summary contains 199 words. Saved 90%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!