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They invented it? ,

How many geothermal plants would the US need to produce 100 exojoules?

I can ask the same about LFTR plants. It takes the same amount whether they're nuclear plants or wind farms if they are of the same size. If it takes 1000 wind farms then it takes 1000 LFTR plants. Exo? Do you mean exa, (peta X 1000)? I see Google returns both.

If we extracted geothermal energy at that rate how long would it take to deplete the extraction sites and how many new wells would we need to drill every year?

Well let's see... The Geysers Geothermal Resource Area in Napa and Sonoma Counties has been producing geothermal energy since the 1960s, between 40 and 50 years. The Department of Energy, DOE, says the oldest nuclear power plants in the US still operating was licensed in 1969. They are licensed for 40 years, and license renewals are for another 20 years. Now how long do geothermal energy plants last? The geothermal plant at Larderello, Italy has been operating since 1904. Or 1913 according to wiki. The Wairakei Power Station in New Zealand has been operating since 1958. That rounds up the top 3 oldest geothermal power plants. Each one is older than the oldest nuclear power plant still in operation.

Also let's look at Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone, it was named in 1870, so it must of been erupting regularly by then.

If there are any more objecting questions I don't know what to think, except maybe you object to geothermal. Maybe because you own shares in nuclear power but not geothermal. Me, I don't own any shares but if I were to buy energy shares I'd buy geothermal, solar, or wind but not coal, natural gas, or nuclear power. At that, I'd try to buy shares in Chinese manufacturers, maybe Brazilian, Indian, and or Russian. BRIC.

Falcon

Even with solar being taken seriously, you'd be using up a lot of land (hopefuly not arable) to be able to provide enough to satisfy household + industrial need.

Just as almost everyone else does, you're concentrating on the One Big Energy Source instead of looking at what sources can be harvested in different locations. The "Economist" has the article A new look at solar power about a solar farm in the Mojave Desert in CA. Both it and the article Sunny Outlook: Can Sunshine Provide All U.S. Electricity? says it produces 350 megawatts of energy, enough to power 90,000 homes. According to the SciAm article using the technology available in 2006 building solar farms on a piece of land 92 miles squared in Nevada, that's just 10& the Bureau of Land Management's land, would produce almost all of the electricity of the US.

That's just solar power. The Wind Energy Resource Atlas of the United States details the wind potential of different regions of the US. The Rocky Mountains alone contain enough potential wind energy to supply all of the 48 continuous states with electricity. Then there's geothermal, which is a baseload provider, hydroelectric, and tidal power sources. One geothermal power plant on Hawaii's Big Island provides 25% of the island's electricity. Geothermal generated 13 terawatts hours of electricity in California. Combine these with a rebuilt smart national electric grid, which needs to be done anyways, and almost every coal, Natural Gas, and Nuclear power plant can be closed. Until the bulk energy storage problem is solved some plants can be kept running for more of the baseload.

Falcon

Your construction project is also going to have to hardware to link up 240 generators to the grid. Also they probably arn't going to be able to generate their rated power at all times.

That's no problem, that's already being done. " U.S. Wind Energy Installations Top 20 Gigawatts". Here's a chart of how much each state generates: "10 Gigawatts of wind power (AWEA)".

I doubt it actually takes 23 years to construct a nuclear power plant.

Did you also read about the 5 megawatt wind turbines and how fast power capacity can be added?

Also you arn't restricted to windy places to build them

That's alright, some places are good for wind, others are good for geothermal, solar, or tidal. Geothermal energy produced produced 13,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity in California in 2007. On the Big Island of Hawaii geothermal energy produced 25% of the electricity. Houses in New York City are heated by geothermal energy. From British Columbia to Southern California along the Pacific Coast solar is widely available. Here's a list of states with good solar potential: "Solar takes no shine to Nevada". The title refers to the solar industry not wanting to go to Nevada because right across the state line in California the state has a number of incentives to encourage solar. Simply use whatever type of energy an area has.

Falcon

you have problem of transmitting power from where you can produce it, to the place where it needs to be employed

HVDC, High Voltage DC powerlines can transmit electricity log distances.

Also, you still need some way to ensure a stable baseline of power - power that you can count on producing a minimum amount, all hours of the day or night, every day of the year. Coal, oil, nuclear, and geothermal offer that

As you say geothermal can provide at least some baseload as can natural gas. Geothermal provides power in California. Geothermal provides 13,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity. One geothermal power plant on the Big Island in Hawaii provides 25% of it's electricity. And in New York City geothermal energy is used to heat homes.

Finally, have environmentalists considered the impact of the land use necessary to produce electricity on the scale our nation needs using solar and wind?

Actually now many environmentalists now support nuclear power.

How many birds will be hacked to death by wind turbines

Cats are now a bigger threat to birds than wind turbines. Actually it was some of the older wind turbines that killed a lot of birds. Today they're made with bigger blades that spin slower, it was the fast spinning blades that killed birds.

Maybe bird migrations will be confused by all the glare from PV panels?

Birds are already confused by the windows on buildings.

Where are the UK, France, Germany, etc going to build their solar and wind farms?

Much of Germany has good potential wind energy. A German town is going 100% Renewable Power.

Falcon

Continuous states, ie all states in the US except Alaska and Hawaii. Add all of the other good sites in the US for wind farms and there may be enough for those two states as well, but really long powerlines would be needed. It looks as though Alaska has good wind potential as well though. And Hawaii has it's own potential source of energy, Geothermal. This one plant makes 25% of the electricity on the Big Island.

If you google for the word "geothermal" the top four pages all reference heat pumps as geothermal energy. (The fifth is very brief and does not mention heat pumps either as geothermal or not.) You must have searched pretty hard to find the two references you sited.

Geothermal Education Office
"Today, with geothermal heat pumps (GHP's), we take advantage of this stable earth temperature - about 45 - 58 degrees F just a few feet below the surface"

Geothermal Resources Council
"Learn the basics about geothermal energy and the three technology categories, geothermal heat pumps, direct-use applications, and power plants"

U.S. Dept of Energy
"Ground-source heat pumps use the earth or groundwater as a heat source in winter and a heat sink in summer."

International Geothermal Association
"The most common non-electric use world-wide (in terms of installed capacity) is heat pumps (34.80%)"

Yup, you're still wrong.

P.S. citing the IRS as a technical resource is pathetic. They are the ones that upheld ketchup as a "fresh and perishable fruit" for purposes of bankrupcy.

1) How about a large array of solar arrays in orbit above the planet. They could soak up pure sunlight, and fire it down to the earth in the form of a laser at ground-bound solar arrays waiting for bursts of light. Of course there would be drawbacks: Birds flying through the beams would be vaporised, as well as any aircraft which accidentally strayed off course, and there's always the chance that something might hit a satellite, shifting its aim to target a busload of nuns.

2) Combine power generation with them space elevators we keep hearing about. Aren't those supposed to generate some huge amount of static electricity? You know, giant metallic strand kilometers in length, raking the sky all the way up to zero atmosphere... Why not harness it? I have no idea how we'd get the power back down to the ground, but hey. I'm just a kook.

3) Um... geothermal taps at active volcanoes? Not necessarily a *smart* investment, but it's hot, and we know how to get electricity from hot dirt.

4) Electroactive polymers. If we can find a way to manufacture these little pads inexpensively, then why not have them running under sidewalks, highways, stairs, bowling alleys, basketball courts, train tracks, treadmills, carpets (especially at your local all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet)... They *have* to be pretty resilient if the military is planning to stick them in troops' boots. Every time a car rolls by or a pudgy fellow trundles over to get a fifth bowl of kung-pao chicken, you'd be getting something out of it.

5) Put great big magnets on top of cars, and run large coils of wire around all highways. Okay, that was stupid.

6) Attach generators to doors. All doors. Turnstyles.

7) If only there were a way to safely transmit power. Wouldn't it be great to have all of the icky nuclear power plants to the moon and just have them send the energy home? Maybe something with quantum-entangled pairs of stuff? Like have one member on the moon being jiggled like a maraca by a nuclear furnace and the other half on Earth having its quantum-jiggles somehow harnessed for its energy?

Probably not, huh?

Well, here's the site for Marin County Superior Court, but I can't seem to find any cases under "Hariett Judnick" or "DoubleClick".