Column: Good news for 100% clean energy. Geothermal has finally arrived
www.latimes.com
Superhot underground rocks can supply 24/7 clean power, combating the climate crisis.
  • Aniki@feddit.org
    1·
    5 months ago

    I think geothermal is a scam?

    I remember reading somewhere that geothermic heat basically doesn’t replenish (or only does so at geological timescales), and by extracting heat from underground we’re basically depleting the underground heat reservoir, leading to shrinkage of the ground and therefore possible cracks in buildings.

    TL;DR: It’s not truly renewable, but rather renewable only on geological timescales (similar to fossil fuels).

    • Antitoxic9087@slrpnk.net
      2·
      5 months ago

      It is highly dependent of the local geological conditions. Convection-based geothermal plants (those with hot spring flowing around) probably have less constraints on heat extraction limit. Conduction-based geothermal plants will face more problems.

      In some shallow geothermal use case the ground is used as seasonal heat storage so heat renewable rate is not an issue.