Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Helium Leads to Geothermal Energy Resources

Posted by Zonk on from the who-doesn't-love-clean-burning-earth dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "When we think about alternative sources of energy, we often forget the potential of geothermal energy resources. In fact, it has been estimated that accessible geothermal energy in the U.S. represents 90 quadrillion kilowatt-hours or 3,000 times the country's total annual energy consumption. So far, it has been difficult and expensive to locate good sources of geothermal energy. But now, two U.S. researchers have found a new method which doesn't require drilling. They are using the ratio of helium isotopes in surface waters to point to the best sources of geothermal energy."

3 of 317 comments (clear)

  1. i've been to the biggest geothermal plant in world by circletimessquare · · Score: 4, Interesting

    it's not in iceland as one might guess, it's in the philippines

    on leyte, near lake danao above ormoc city, called tongonan geothermal field, run by calenergy

    it's a pretty weird place: gorgeous virgin mountain forest, everything is muddy and foggy and it rains all the time there, as it's basically nothing but humongous turbines plopped right over steam vents coming right out of the ground. there are communist NPA guerrillas in the area and the security of the place is pretty important, so there are guys with submachine guns at checkpoints everywhere too

    but, notably, some of the streams running off from the area are a brilliant cobalt blue

    so just a reality check: some of the problems associated with mining will be found with geothermal sources. mining often churns up lots of unhealthy metals from the earth, artificially. well, geothermal is basically that same process, but completely natural. so whereever you have geothermal energy sources, you have the potential to stir up nasty metals and deposit them on the surface, with or without man's involvement

    not my blog, but some good pics and summary

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  2. The potential by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The MIT report calculated the world's total EGS resources to be over 13,000 ZJ. Of these, over 200 ZJ would be extractable, with the potential to increase this to over 2,000 ZJ with technology improvements - sufficient to provide all the world's energy needs for several millennia.[14]

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_power

    Of course, to completely replace oil, we would have to be able to use this energy for transportation. So, we still have some problems. Even so, if we drill ten miles deep almost anywhere, we will get useful geothermal energy. That means that we could use existing power plants because their generators are usually steam driven, or could be. We could get rid of our dependance on middle-east energy relatively fast. Canada could supply enough oil for our transportation needs until we can perfect the battery powered semi-trailer truck. ;-) The other thing is that all the drilling activity would stimulate the economy. Even the existing oil companies could be happy because they would make a mint drilling the wells.
  3. Environmentalists will shut this down by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Little point looking into geothermal environmentalists will just shut it down.
    They have shut down wind farms (Nantucket Sound ala Ted Kennedy, and Walter Cronkite)
    They are trying to reverse hydro-power (dam removal in the northwest)
    They have killed off nuclear (oh, just pick one)

    At some point you just give up and keep buying oil.

    Really I don't think the environmentalists (a) believe what they say, and (b) actually want to solve anything.
    Most of their actions are either just about narcissism and having something to bitch about (usually yelling at society when they really want to yell at their Dad).

    If I thought they actually cared and were working to get things done, I'd be more supportive, but close interaction which the people has turned me very very off to their message.