Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Tuesday, October 11, 2022

Geothermal Future

 Yglesias looks at geothermal power. He uses the example of Iceland, but acknowledges that Iceland is unique because the geothermal source is pretty close to the surface - in some cases it's on the surface. The Blue Lagoon he mentions is the byproduct of a geothermal power plant that is repurposed as a spa.

The best places for geothermal are therefore the places closest to the liquid hot magma and most of these are out west.  As Yglesias notes, most land out west is owned by the Federal government which should make it easier to tap into, but doesn't because we don't privilege the permitting of geothermal wells on public lands, the way we do fossil fuels. Nevada, California, Arizona and Colorado are growing states with growing energy needs (that are being stressed by the collapse of water flow in the Colorado River) who could reinvent their electricity needs with geothermal energy. There are even hot spots on the Louisiana/Arkansas border that could create good green energy jobs in states that don't seem to give a rats ass about climate change.

There are some "warm" spots on the east coast, including near Pittsburgh, eastern Maine and a pocket on the Iowa/Illinois border. Imagine being able to power the electrical grid of Pittsburgh, Boston and Chicago with renewable geothermal energy that emits no carbon. There's even a warm spot between Atlanta and Charleston, if you're so inclined.

Solar and wind are cheap and clean, but they ultimately are constrained by the weather and storage capabilities. Geothermal is not. I've seen first hand what it looks like in tiny Iceland, and it should be a bigger part of our conversation about carbon neutral power.

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