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Alaska Looks To Volcanos For Geothermal Energy
Iddo Genuth writes "Alaskan state officials have recently announced their intention to begin funding the exploration and surveying of Alaska's largest volcanoes in hopes of utilizing these as a
source of geothermal energy. They say this volcano could provide enough energy to power thousands of households, and according to some estimates, Alaska's volcanoes and hot springs could supply up to 25% of the state's energy needs."
While very neat, if we did tap geothermal resources nationwide to get up to supplying 25% of our electrical needs within a few decades, we'd still be behind Iceland. According to Wikipedia, Iceland generates 26.5 of its electricity from geothermal power. Strange to think that a place called Iceland has so much available heat for power generation.
Going a bit astray, has anyone seen the episode of Science Channel's "Eco-Tech" featuring the rooftop windmills designed by Aerotecture? Pretty cool.
Start a happiness pandemic
Speaking of the lower 48's volcanoes. What about Yellowstone? A super-volcano close enough to the surface that the pressure is bending the crust up. Now there is a prime target for investment. Perhaps we can even vent off enough pressure to reduce the risk of another one of those major blasts that it's known for geologically.
Just because you can, does not mean you should.
You want all of /. to drill your GF? Hmmm. Does she know this?
Some major right-wing relgious group did in fact install a geo-thermal. But it was shut down. They chose to use direct steam, which potentially would drain the water that feeds old faithful. But I think that a binary system would make sense. That way, the heat is used, not the water.
Yeah, I have wondered the same thing. It seems that if you lower the temps, it might make it better. Of course, it could make it worse. But hey, do research during the time that we are taking the heat.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
So, how many virgins per minute does it require to keep going?
Table-ized A.I.
i was surprised to read that The Geysers, just north of San Francisco, claims to be "the largest complex of geothermal power plants in the world". i guess "largest" is open to interpretation. But here's another startling claim: "The Geysers satisfies nearly 60 percent of the average electricity demand in the North Coast region from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Oregon border".
who knew ?
Anyone else noticed that Iceland is quite a green and verdant place, while Greenland is a large lump of ice?
The opinions expressed here are those of this individual, and may not reflect the policy or practice of the collective
The CSIRO in Australia has been investigating the practicality of producing electricity from granite deposits since the early nineties. Also since the nineties the same organisation has been saying that Australia could produce all it's power and then some from either solar or wind.
The problem for the last 11yrs in this country has been purely political as we stood stubbornly by the US. Because of this misdirected loyalty our power generation remains 90+% derived from coal and we have seen many innovations payed for by taxpayers sold off to private companies in the EU and elsewhere.
Now that our breadbasket (the Murry-Darling basin) is regularly producing half of what it did just a couple of decades ago people are starting to pay attention.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Scary, isn't it? Unless we carefully condense the steam even geothermal energy doesn't solve global warming. And at present, we don't.
me <- geothermal fan
But we have to be aware of the consequences of everything. We can breed our way out of the benefits of geothermal energy in under a century even if we condense the steam.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
They've been ignoring geothermal for years, and it's good that they're finally getting into it. There's so little feasible habitable space that it could make a great effect on Alaska. However, they also have the benefit of wide-open plains that, for the most part, won't be adversely affected by more modern solar methods. Alaska is essentially a geo/solar power source that remains fundamentally untapped, and really has a ton of potential.
Hmmm. So, do a limited resource which is totally unknown, but best estimates of oil are around 10 BBL. IOW, it is just a couple of years worth of oil for America. The humorous part of this is that the oil will simply be sold to Japan or some other place. How long will it last? Maybe 10-20 years. Max. For comparisons, purdhoe bay had 25 bbls. And it is finally running out after 30 years. So, we pump about 1 BBL/year from there.
And you think that a simple 10BBL is worth a great deal more to Alaska than using their volcanos to generate electricity for the next 100 years? If developed, The YEARLY power available from these will exceed the TOTAL power that WAS stored in purdhoe bay. As to the env, you HAVE to be kidding.Geo-thermal is one of the cleanest forms of energy that we have. Obviously, you need to circulate the water back in. But that is not hard. Heck, if done right, this power can be used to power a train acorss Alaska to Russia (via tunnel). It would allow development of the area. And they would still be able to export energy back to Russia, Canada, and the northwest.
And you still push oil? Hmmmm.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
The "Big Island" of Hawaii has a geothermal plant rated at something like 25-35 megawatts, which is a meaningful fraction (though not 25%, maybe more like 10%) of demand. More geothermal could be exploited, but there are issues of land ownership (lots of the volcanic stuff is federal land) as well as cultural, religious and environmental sensitivity.
The oil industry will need a cheap form of electricity to extract all that expensive oil. Awesome.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
That argument is the same one as saying that wind generators wipe out the birds or that CFL have mercury in them.
Yes, SOME wind generators have killed birds (esp one in CA). But over all have not. More important, these are MUCH better on birds than the pollution being put out by coal plants.
The same issue with the mercury in CFL. The CFL has a small amount of Mercury, but FAR FAR less than what is put out by a CLEAN coal plant using a regular bulb.
The geo-thermal requires anywhere from 1 to a 100 holes. But there are plenty of dried wells in places like Colorado that make a great low-temp place (esp, since many wells were already drilled close). Secondly, oil pulls up the exact same sediments. In fact worse, because most are drilling FAR deeper these days. But by using a closed system, esp. with binaries, the pollution on the land and in the air is gone. So that leaves just that below. And since the way of the hole is piping, you really do not interfere with the local water table (barring a shallow heat reservoir). As to the multiple holes, that is also a none issue. Slant drilling works wonders. A single pad with 5 holes will do the trick. Even the EPA says it is one of the cleanest form of energy.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
I know a single woman who works in Alaska. As she puts it "the odds are good, but the goods are odd".
In a heat engine, there is a maximum theoretical efficiency which may be achieved. This is dependent on the difference in absolute temperatures between the hot and cold reservoirs. For example, if your hot reservoir is 1000K, and your cold is 300K, the maximum theoretical efficiency is 1-300/1000 = 70%. In the coal plant you were referring to, the actual efficiency is likely very near the theoretical efficiency (mechanical engineers have done a good job at achieving high efficiencies with mechanical systems). It is impossible to improve upon that without violating the laws of thermodynamics.
Of course, no moving parts means that you may be able to operate at much higher temperatures (you'd need a ceramic PEM to sustain the higher temperatures).
Same applies to Iceland, of course.
PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
tongonan geothermal field, in leyte, in the philippines (not my page). i have a friend of a relative who works there as a nurse so i was able to tag along as a civilian, which isn't easy because of the heavy security there
its basically just these huge turbines sitting over a bunch of steam gushing from the earth. its a pretty surreal place because its raining all the time (all that steam). its deep in the jungle and it is a major powerplant for the philippines, so it has all these checkpoints and guys with submachine guns (npa rebels are around). and the geothermal activity means all of the streams you pass are a brilliant cobal blue from mineral run off. it feels like the headquarters for a james bond villain, very doctor no
anyway, about those mineral laden streams stirred up from geothermal exploitation: cadmium, manganese, chromium... not too environmentally friendly, no? you have some of the same environmental issues as you would with any mining via chemical leaching in terms of poisoning the environment
in other words, pick an energy source, any energy source, and it has an environmental downside: wind kills birds, tidal energy increases silting, biofuels inflate food prices for the poor, solar panel fabrication pollutes, etc. such that, when you see all of the upsides and downsides, you realize the choice of energy source is not between evil and polluting and clean and carefree, but choosing between different levels of environmental unfriendliness
given that realization, the best energy source in the world is obviously nuclear (with breeder reactors, to make the byproducts far less worrisome)
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
" Wind and solar probably can't deliver the wattage"
More important than that, what power they can and always will supply will be inconsistent. Wind isn't constant, and everyone has cloudy days. A day with no wind means no power if you're relying on windmills. And during storms, you can overload the grid. Recently in Oregon, a wind farm nearly blew the local power grid when storms pushed wind speeds so high that the windmills suddenly pushed more power into the system than it could handle. Wind and solar will always supplement other sources, not replace them.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel