Energy Transition Crisis - Episode 4: Deep Geothermal Renewable Energy

Chapters:

00:00 Episode 4: Deep Geothermal Renewable Energy
03:48 Introduction to Deep Geothermal Renewable Energy
17:25 Re-Purposing Technology from the Oil & Gas Industry
28:37 Supercritical Geothermal
34:22 Conclusions

Geothermal renewable energy is currently the least practical and economic of the four primary renewable energy sources. But we’re already on the cusp of making technological advances that could be game-changers. In this episode of Energy Transition Crisis, I’ll show you what it would take for Geothermal to leapfrog Wind, Solar, and Hydropower, to become the very best source of baseload power needed to replace fossil fuels.
To phase out fossil fuels by 2050, we need to build 80k TWh of new clean electric generation capacity. That’s equivalent to 160k TWh of thermal energy. By my calculations, no more than 35% of it could come from wind and solar, and that’s intermittent supply. So to phase out fossil fuels, what’s left to find is the other 65% of baseload supply needed to finish the job. That’s 52k TWh of electricity, or 104k TWh of thermal energy needed to make that electricity.

But our goal shouldn’t just be to replace what we already have. We should strive to make clean energy more abundant than fossil fuel energy is today. For that reason, I prefer to focus on finding a clean source of baseload supply for the full 160k TWh of thermal energy needed to completely replace fossil fuels. That way, if wind and solar fall short of my admittedly very aggressive 35% target by 2050, we’ll still have enough energy. And if wind and solar deliver the full 35% or more, then the extra energy we create will be the icing on the cake that helps usher in a new era of human prosperity just like the steam engine did beginning in the 1770s.
Geothermal renewable energy, at its current state of technological development, is the least promising of the four primary renewable energy sources. So why am I dedicating an entire episode to it? Because we’re on the cusp of making technological breakthroughs in geothermal that could easily be game-changers, leapfrogging Geothermal from last position behind Wind, Solar, and Hyrdropower, and making it the MOST attractive source of renewable energy to supply the 160k TWh of thermal energy needed to completely phase-out fossil fuels by 2050.

Geothermal is less popular and less well understood than other renewables, so let’s start with how it works. There are several different kinds of Geothermal energy, but I’m only going to focus on the one that could be a game changer for Energy Transition, which is Electricity generated from deep Geothermal wells.

If you ask most people what our planet is made of, they’ll probably say dirt, rocks, and the water in our oceans. But these things are just what make up the earth’s crust, which only accounts for 1% of the planet’s overall mass. The crust isn’t very thick—generally no thicker than 100km on land, and even thinner under our deep oceans, where the crust is only 5-7km thick.
It’s another 6,300 km straight down to get to the center of the earth. The next layer below the base of the earth’s crust is the mantle, which is very hot rock, some of it solid and some of it magma, or molten rock, similar to the lava that flows out of erupting volcanoes. Below the mantle are the Earth’s inner and outer core, the center of which is mostly molten iron and other metals.

The deeper you go, the hotter it gets. The earth’s core has a temperature over five thousand degrees Celsius, or almost 10,000 degrees farenheit. The deepest base of the earth’s crust is about 1,000C. Within the earth’s crust, the temperature gets hotter as you go deeper.

A study by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency concluded that if we could just figure out a way to harness only 1/10th of 1% of the heat in the earth’s mantle, we could meet all our energy needs for millions of years. Put another way, all the energy we could possibly ever need is already right at our feet. Or more precisely, just a few miles straight down below our feet.
At those depths, the heat of Earth’s mantle—or even just the deeper regions of Earth’s crust, offers us all the energy we could possibly need, if only we could figure out how to drill a hole deep enough to access all that heat that’s right there below our feet. The really hot rock that has enough energy to solve all our energy problems is found at less depth below the surface of the earth than our commercial airliners fly above the surface of the earth.

[audio-obsession]

Love this. Not only calling it the problem, but theorizing the solutions for long term advancement

[nikolom]

Thanks Erik we need smart environmental warriors like you

[fver]

This is an amazing and exceptional series by an equally exceptional thinker on the topic! Thanks Eric and team.

[TotalIgnition]

Erik, I can’t thank you enough for a terrific episode

[anarkicleo]

Great content Erik, this will encourage some strong debate. Well done mate!!

[arashb]

Well explained! It's very eye-opening. Thank you Erik!

[Viktor_Raskat]

Incredible series, it needs to be shared. I think every politician who debates and talks about the transition should watch every episode and first talk about real numbers and not about future plans.

[benchapple]

A good idea but experimental. My question would be 'How long will the hole last?' If the answer is indefinite then the original cost of the bore is almost moot. Another question would be 'How much power can be extracted?' Power not energy. The answer to this question is fundamental to the economic one.
If it works, you wouldn't need wind or solar at all. That would make a lot of people and wildlife very happy indeed.

[Georgepeck-gp]

Great series! But it’s important to note that even if we have unlimited energy for ‘everyone’, the biosphere’s largess is currently being consumed 70% faster than it can regenerate and can dispose of pollutants. Humans have to live within their ecological footprint on any long term basis so we will have to shed the economic model of continuous growth and externalising nature and adopt an economic policy of balanced resource use. That’s gonna be tricky!

[finanzzentrale]

What a fantastic shift in point of view on oil & gas industry! Never seen it that way that climate activism actually could stand in their own way by demonizing that industry.

[jeoinaforest]

This is the most exciting energy alternative to me! Hopefully people can figure this out soon! The true beauty of this tech will be that the hole basically lasts many lifetimes….our children’s children children will still be enjoying the energy from the hole!

[alberthartl]

In 2019 Canadian company Eavor technology successfully demonstrated their closed loop AGS concept. In December 2022 they completed a closed loop in 250°C rock in New Mexico. They are currently repurposing geothermal bores in Germany. GA drilling's plasma bit and Quase Energy's mm wave bit vaporize hard rock and vitrify the bore hole. NASA technology is used for high temperature sensors and controls. Supercritical bore holes will most likely be accomplished in the next 24 months. Then boilers in existing power plants can be replaced with high energy steam from deep geothermal.

[robroy]

Such a great video for Deep Well Geo 101 for anyone to gain awareness on the subject. Very much needed in our industry.

[Wartrace]

I've shared the link to this video series everywhere I could on various internet forums and Facebook. We need to get people behind SOLVING this transition instead of just pretending that the transition will work without having a replacement in place. I hope your video efforts pay off Erik.

[MariaSantos-uubk]

This is a game-changer, delving into the world of geothermal renewable energy. Erik Townsend expertly unpacks the potential and challenges of geothermal as a clean energy source, offering a compelling case for its role in our transition away from fossil fuels. The episode sparks crucial conversations around the untapped geothermal resources and the innovations needed to make this energy solution a mainstream reality. It's a call to action, encouraging us to explore diverse avenues in our quest for sustainable energy. Don't miss Episode 4 as it unveils the geothermal puzzle pieces shaping our energy future.

[johnmilligan]

What if we stopped makimg it public policy to subsidize the fossil fuel industry and used all of those same subsidylies to fund the development of of deep geothermal? How far would that take us?

[michaelgoodrich]

With all of the "renewable" energy sourced, we need to theorize potential problems as we start applying them at scale and watch for problems at all times.

We humans have a habit of seeing something as the best thing since sliced bread. Jumping on the band wagon. Then, we realize we made a mistake. X-ray machines for fitting shoes, asbestos, radioactive isotopes in various products, global warming, etc.

This needs to be avoided if possible.

[patrickweldon]

Love time listener of your podcast. Really enjoying this series. Thank you for your work on this subject.

[RobertSavard-sb]

I found episode 4 educational and interesting. learned some laymans science to boot. thnx.

[MicahBratt]

We could also use giant magnifying glass chambers that heat water to generate electricity...