Iceland To Drill Hole Into Volcano

G3ckoG33k writes "BBC reports that Iceland will drill a hole into a volcano so it can tap heat from it, which eventually is hoped to produce commercially available energy. From the article: "Twenty years ago, geologist Gudmundur Omar Friedleifsson had a surprise when he lowered a thermometer down a borehole. 'We melted the thermometer,' he recalls. 'It was set for 380C; but it just melted.'". Excuse me, Gudmundur, but how could that ever have been a 'surprise'..."

Comments

Re:Geothermal power is really important

[Overzeetop]

Yeah, pretty cool until you find out that there are environmental consequnces to dramatically altering a river basin. Not that the drawbacks always outweigh the benefits, but it's not exactly the "free energy and waterskiing nirvana" that the tour promoters would like you to see. Remember - it's in their financial interest to build hydroelectric plants, there's a conflict of interest.

Oh, and if anyone wants to decide to build a dam near me, just make sure that you give me the heads up so that I can buy a few thousand acres of future waterfront before the prices go way up. (Hey, for the kind of money we're talking, I'll play the game, too!)

Re:Geothermal power is really important

[gcranston]

There's a host of problems with hydroelectric that rarely get talked about. Damming the river slows the water, reducing the size of sediment it can transport. This causes all the sediment from upstream to settle out at the inlet to the dam resevoir, raising the bed level drastically. Changes in the river like this are detrimental to fish and plats in the river, and have also grounded many boats. This is why very few hydroelectric dams have been built in North America and Europe in the past few decades. For these and a host of ethical reasons (like displacing a couple MILLION people), the Three Gorges Dam should never have been built in China.

I'm not aware of any of these kinds of issues with geothermal (I really do support the idea), but then I don't know that much about the technology. Just pointing out that hydroelectric is far from 'free' when you build dams to do it. The thing is not everyone has something the size of Niagara Falls to generate power from. (Even then , Niagara does not acount for very much of Ontario's total power generation.)

Re:Geothermal power is really important

[ottffssent]

Yeah, Three Gorges has its (major) problems. But to say it should never have been built is a luxury you have because of living in a country fairly well-provisioned for its future energy needs. As these things go.

China's projecting enormous increased demand, and there's no good way to get the energy.

They can bet on coal, which China actually has quite a lot of (though not so much on a per-capita basis), but it's something of an environmental disaster even if it's burned cleanly.
They can bet on nuclear, which presents waste storage problems and relies on finite supplies of fissionable material.
They can bet on wind (not sure of the viability of that, but I'm sure at least SOMEWHERE in China there's good wind), but it takes up a lot of area and apparently isn't so good for birds.
They can bet on solar, which is even worse in terms of taking up space, and is expensive, and only works for half the day.
They can bet on hydroelectric, which displaces people, permanently changes the river, and nukes a whole lot of land. And that enormous lake is going to affect the weather.

There are other options too, of course. And the best solution is a mix of many different technologies. Etc. But the fact is that there's no good solution. China bit the bullet and picked what they hope is the least-bad choice. It had to be done.