What is Digg?73 Comments
- sonnysavage, on 08/28/2008, -7/+22I wonder if pumping heat from underground has environmental repercussions. The first law of thermodynamics certainly must come into play here.
- thestrongrope, on 08/28/2008, -2/+16Man this is just a bunch of hot air.
- Narcism, on 08/28/2008, -2/+13There so many resources in North America that we could use it for ages with no harm!
~prior to colonizing North America - MikeChino, on 08/28/2008, -0/+10Beware of LAVOS
- trogdor282, on 08/28/2008, -1/+11The earth's core is powered by decaying Uranium - it's a giant natural nuke plant we're standing on. Right now the heat just radiates into space, but I don't see any problem with tapping into it on its way out.
- Suzilla, on 08/28/2008, -0/+10Meh. That'll barely power 100 Delorean time machines.
- inactive, on 08/28/2008, -1/+11One of the reasons this kind of power is quicker to deploy is a lack of regulation -- that's my gut feeling. The nuclear industry has been crippled by red tape for over 30 years.
- Narcism, on 08/28/2008, -2/+11Congratulations, you can perform simple division.
- ozziegt, on 08/28/2008, -1/+10The atmosphere is so large, surely we could never pump out enough CO2 to make a difference!
- spocksbrain, on 08/28/2008, -2/+11Watt = The SI unit for Power
Joule = The SI unit for Energy
Now children, anyone care to tell me where the author of this title has gone wrong? - vandy, on 08/28/2008, -2/+101.21 Gigawatts! (x 10^2)
- billbugger, on 08/28/2008, -0/+8There is a geo-thermal plant in norther california that was causing tremors due to the disruption from pumping water in the ground to create steam. But this was back in 2000/2001. Maybe they fixed the issue.
http://www.earthtimes.org/dec/technololgybumpydec1 ... - inactive, on 08/28/2008, -2/+10Amazing, but can it tap Megan Fox?
- billbugger, on 08/28/2008, -0/+7@Daffy: Because it could have an unforeseen adverse affect on the surrounding environment.
- InfiniteNothing, on 08/28/2008, -0/+5The title should have said 120GW of /power/
- jaredcat, on 08/28/2008, -0/+5I don't think you realize just how big that molten core is... Thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of times larger than all of the volume of all water on the earth combined. Its REALLY big.
Even with our rapidly increasing energy consumption, I don't really see us ever depleting that resource if we learn how to tap it. - OneLess, on 08/28/2008, -0/+5If absolutely nothing was molten, the Earth would lose its magnetic field and compasses would stop working. Oh, and the solar wind would scorch the surface rendering all life on the planet extinct.
- MasterThief117, on 08/28/2008, -2/+6That is the equivalent of 2,400,000,000 50-watt light bulbs.
- inactive, on 08/28/2008, -0/+4Hopefully more places around the country will start building these.
- twistedfish, on 08/28/2008, -0/+3If they are not using water to product steam, what is the " Patented liquid heat carrier"?
Heat Transfer Technology
Raser’s Heat Transfer technology is based on a patented liquid heat carrier that has a substantially lower steam point or “flash point” than water. Water boils at 212° F while the liquid used by Raser is effective at temperatures as low as 180° F. This can be extremely valuable by allowing more low-temperature geothermal sites to be productive. It also allows more economical geothermal sites, using water from shallower depths with lower temperatures, to be productive as well. - DaffyDuck, on 08/28/2008, -0/+3"If they are not using water to product steam, what is the " Patented liquid heat carrier"?"
Why do you need to know? If I said it was hydrosulfate or something like that are you going to go and create your own low temp generator? - jdbeast00, on 08/28/2008, -0/+3so what happens if there is nothing molten down below us? are there just no more volcanos or does something more catastrophic happen?
- OneLess, on 08/28/2008, -0/+3A lot of the time they're put on farmland that was created way back when by chopping down whole forests (at least around here, dunno how it works out west), so if anything I think a lot of wind farms would actually reverse our negative impact on wind patterns.
- Kamacurus, on 08/28/2008, -0/+3hot air huh, maybe I should start bagging my farts and sending it in to the gov?
- MacBookForMe, on 08/28/2008, -1/+4Yeah, but there is so much heat down there in the 'red underworld', that we could use it for ages with no harm...
- cheezintern, on 08/28/2008, -0/+3....you're gonna be sleeping for a loonnnnng time.
- prometheanspark, on 08/28/2008, -0/+2Unfortunately, the article is useless unless it gives the price of the thing. There are literally millions of ways to make energy that isn't cost effective. If it's cheaper than wind ~8c/kwh, then yay, otherwise it's a taxpayer funded boondoggle.
There is a potential problem with geothermal energy, cooling of the Earths core if we really went nuts with it. Whats so bad about that? Losing the planet's magnetic field and the surface of the earth getting sterilized by cosmic rays and radiation. - iFrikkenR, on 08/28/2008, -1/+3Probably alcohol of some sort. Ethanol for example boils at only 78C (172F). If it's not and it's really some patented fluid rather than method, everyone else should just use alcohol.
Looks like one of those bleedingly-obvious-but-why-has-no-one-already-done-it scenarios - Narcism, on 08/28/2008, -1/+3Just make sure you don't shoot out any bits and pieces because that would constitute a biohazardous attack.
- consciousman, on 02/23/2009, -0/+2not surprising....
this is why we need change in America - egghead1619, on 08/28/2008, -0/+2I've often wondered why no one seems to bring up the laws of physics and thermodynamics when wind turbines are discussed. Don't these massive structures slow the wind and heat it up due to friction? What implications does this have? Is there a limit to the number of these structures that can be placed in an area, in an array? I have yet to see any environmental study performed on wind turbines. This "renewable resource" of wind may have very devastating consequences if it's not as renewable as we thought.
- rocketman42, on 08/28/2008, -0/+1If you bothered to actually RTFA:
"On August 22nd, Raser Technologies and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson BROKE GROUND on New Mexico’s first geothermal power plant."
So, they are doing it. - beersnob, on 08/28/2008, -0/+1Been done before:
http://www.chenahotsprings.com/index.php?id=90 - Yage2006, on 08/28/2008, -0/+1Ya lousy thermodynamics ruining all the fun with its laws which have never been broken or dis proven and always prevail.
- jaredcat, on 08/28/2008, -0/+1@narcism
well that was correct wasn't it? its been about 400 years and we still have plenty of resources left. - thestrongrope, on 08/28/2008, -0/+1No, that is what our trash dumps are for. Just a banana peel and some diapers and I am off to 1849. I'm gonna git me some GOLD!!
- causalloop, on 08/29/2008, -0/+1just saying 120 gigawatts was too difficult?
- sodade, on 08/28/2008, -0/+1LOL - You don't think that Nuke plants have a dramatically higher risk profile than geothermal/solar?
- sering, on 11/27/2008, -0/+1that's nice
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http://wekoman.ej.am - elfprince13, on 08/28/2008, -1/+2@Zaebos: http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/index.htm
- jaxcs, on 08/28/2008, -0/+1Well, for one thing, this geothermal plant doesn't use steam directly from the earth. The earth heats a liquid in a closed system that in turn is used in a turbine. It's all in the article.
- Ramble, on 08/28/2008, -1/+2Great Scott! That's nearly 121 Giggawatts!
- TJ11240, on 08/28/2008, -0/+1For all intents and purposes, consider geothermal energy a limitless resource. The mantle is extremely huge, and we're not even drilling anywhere near it.
- reallybigname, on 08/28/2008, -0/+1Less heat in the atmosphere means that we're preventing global warming, right?
- TJ11240, on 08/28/2008, -0/+1A 1 Gigawatt power plant produces 24 Gigawatt-hours in a day. Whats the issue?
- DaffyDuck, on 08/28/2008, -0/+1Not if it is recaptured which is likely to be the case since it is using something other than water. Look up "heat recovery generators".
- officecamel, on 08/29/2008, -0/+1Anyone from New Mexico is invited to discuss this on the NM Renewable Energy Forum: http://nmrenewables.org/new-geothermal-technology- ... This is an amazing technology that has a real future.
- wunksta, on 08/29/2008, -0/+1GREAT SCOTT!
- avsa, on 08/28/2008, -0/+1Stop global earth-core cooling!!!
- logicet, on 08/29/2008, -0/+1So we use electric vehicles to mine the uranium, I presume?
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