Could Earth's Heat Solve Our Energy Problems?

Patreon:
Facebook:
Instagram:
Reddit:
Twitter:

Credits:

Narrator/Editor: Brian McManus
Editor: Dylan Hennessy

References:

[12]

Thank you to AP Archive for access to their archival footage.

Songs:
Signs of Evidence - Kikoru
Dead Cat - Imprismed
Waltzer - Dye O
With the Waves - Moon Craters
Down the Stream - Francis Wells

Thank you to my patreon supporters: Adam Flohr, Henning Basma, Hank Green, William Leu, Tristan Edwards, Ken Coltan, Andrew McCorkell, Ian Dundore, John & Becki Johnston. Nevin Spoljaric, Jason Clark, Devin Rathbun, Thomas Barth, Paulo Toyosi Toda Nishimura

[Danailii]

German mechanical engineer here. Greatly appreciate the in-depth video as always. I wanted to point out some big potential drawbacks of geothermal energy you did not include in the video.


1. Geothermal energy is not boundless as the video suggests. Following the first law of thermodynamics, a natural occurring geothermal reservoir (or aquifer as it is known in the field) or a man-made one thanks to EGS, is bound to lose temperature over time due to the fact that we pump out more heat than we reinject. This inevitably causes a decrease in the aquifers temperature, which in turn causes a diminished steam production which then reduces the amount of generated electricity by turbine/generator. Some sources suggest that the average aquifer requires roughly 30 years until the original temperature is reached again.


2.Scaling/ Fouling. This is probably one of the greatest technical problems with geothermal plants nowadays. Since the water used for direct steam generation or secondary cycle heat transfer is coming from ca.3-4 km underground, it is saturated with different minerals, the most common being SiO2 (quartz) and CaCO3 (limestone). The chemical nature and type of the minerals is highly dependent on the location of the geothermal plant, but you can research them further if you'd like. Rapid changes in pressure and temperature along the pipes leads to the precipitation of these minerals (Scaling/Fouling) and unfortunately quite frequently to the failure of vital mechanical components such as pumps and heat exchangers. This leads to frequent halts of electricity production in most geothermal power plants.


Sorry for the long comment, I just feel passionate about the subject since it was the topic of my thesis!

[panzerkampfwagenvitigeraus]

Real Engineering: "We can use Earth's heat for energy"
Kurzgesagt: *Dyson Sphere*

[haloclips]

In my country of new Zealand about 16% of electricity comes from geothermal. With plants running at full capacity around 95% of the time.

[MrAlexRadic]

Real engineering can you do a video on the next generation of nuclear power plants and their efficiencies. The recycling an re-usability of nuclear waste is really interesting in terms of safe and long term nuclear energy and energy sustainability, but people are so scared of the word there is little media coverage on it. cheers.

[major]

I have been to Bath. It blew my mind that the humble, little channel seen at 4:16 still functions ceaselessly as a drain even though it was built so long ago by the Romans.

[Yamyatos]

Most opposition to nuclear energy is based on ignorance. Change my mind.




Edit: To summ up most answers for those mentioning Chernobyl and others. Just like a plane crash, these examples are easy to point out sources of a couple tens of thousands of deaths. What people always forget mentioning is the estimated 4+ million deaths _a year_ from air pollution. That's one part of the ignorance i was talking about. A couple accidents costing a couple tens of thousands of lifes cant realistically ever outnumber the lifes we lose each year by polluting the air as we do. Then there is also climate change, which is a hard to grasp concept for some, but way worse than a couple tens of thousands of deaths by itself (and potentially irreversable if we keep continuing). Then there is the fact that newer types of reactors can pretty much make a meltdown more or less impossible, not even talking about using thorium. Keep in mind that nuclear energy was - and still is - a very new energy source in terms of progress. The only real problem would be the waste. However, it's better to be able to contain and store waste, compared to just pumping it into the atmosphere. Keep in mind that radioactive elements with short halftimes are the dangerous ones, but gone in a couple years. These with millions/billions of years of halflifes are basically not very dangerous, since they dont radiate a lot. So the most problematic ones are those with halflifes that make them radiate dangerous amounts, but still stick around long enough to cause problems. Still, in comparison this is a smaller problem to deal with than air pollution and greenhouse gases by far. Also renewable energy sources are neither renewable, nor completely green and it's not possible to sustain the planet by them alone, not to mention all those batteries needed.

[TheLiamster]

Where is all the geothermal energy?

Answer: it’s underground.

[WomanSlayer]

why not just put the lava in buckets for fuel

[exdeegaming]

Wendover: planes
RealLifeLore: Toyota corolla
Real engineering: *Rock.*

[fidjeenjanrjsnsfh]

Tap the Yellowstone. Either get renewable energy or 2012. A win-win scenario.

[kenlittle]

While much of the interest is in heating we must also remember that a huge portion of our energy use is cooling. A drill/well wouldn't have to go down far enough to capture heat. In any geographic area that is burdened by cooling costs, using the shaft as a heat exchanger can work backwards without the excessive depth required to reach a heat source. We're only talking about 30-40 feet.

[garret]

Real Engineering: probably the most famous example of a hot spring in bath england.
Japan: NANI!!

[jam_herobrine]

Supposing how Minuite pysics made a thing about how to make a lava moat and how to power it, the main solution was geothermal...

Coinidence... I THINK NOT!

[mikycarney]

"I told you harvesting the core was suicide" Superman's dad

[Rutaraki]

didnt expect to be seeing Real Engineering handing out YangGang pamphlets

[jacksonthesyndicalist]

Wait I’m not an engineer but isn’t this how we awake the Balrog?

[magnvss]

When "right below our feet" means kilometres under, you understand there is a reason this old dream is so hard to achieve.

[desmondsolomon]

Lived in North Texas. There are shale reserves up there. So fracking is pretty popular. Pretty much once the fracking started we got earthquakes as far down as Dallas. Usually around 3+ magnitude. So the drilling isn’t just an issue for the acquisition of geothermal energy resources. It’s something we’ve already allowed for the tapping of natural gas reserves.

[JoaoPedro-qpcw]

I like how Andrew Yang is shown when you say "some smart politician"

(Not being ironic)

[jarichardsutube]

THANK YOU..! for telling people about EGS (Heat Mining). Most people have NO IDEA this energy IS AVAILABLE with EXISTING technology. BRAVO...!!!