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darkwatertoday at 2:02 PM6 repliesview on HN

Why geothermal is not renewable? Earth is not going to cool its magma soon enough


Replies

leonidasruptoday at 2:13 PM

The Earth's heat content is about 1×10^19 TJ. This heat naturally flows to the surface by conduction at a rate of 44.2 TW and is replenished by radioactive decay at a rate of 30 TW. These power rates are more than double humanity's current energy consumption from primary sources, but most of this power is too diffuse (approximately 0.1 W/m^2 on average) to be recoverable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_power#Resources

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Mordisquitostoday at 2:18 PM

Only as a technicality. If you find a geothermal hotspot and start to extract energy from it, the hotspot will eventually cool down faster than if you hadn't (which of course depends on the size of the hotspot and how much heat you're pulling out).

However, given that there's no downsides to cooling down a hotspot other than, well, no longer being able to extract energy from it, geothermal is a bit of an honorary "renewable".

Actual renewables ultimately all come down to recent[0] solar energy, which will never deplete their source however much they are used. All the energy in wind, hydroelectric and biofuels has recently originated in the Sun.

[0] I say "recently" because fossil fuels are all also derived from the Sun, but their rate of regeneration is a bit too slow compared to the speed at which we use them.

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adev_today at 4:28 PM

Contrary to a popular belief, most high temperature Geothermal plants have a predicted death date.

This is due to the physics reality of the ground itself: Power of a Geothermal well will decay over time to a point where the well become unusable and need to be closed.

It is due to the fact underground water is rich in minerals and raw elements. This soup will slowly but surely cement the well itself and its associated underground.

There are techniques (similar to 'fraking') to extend the lifetime of a well but only to some extent.

If the topic interests you (and you can bear artificially translated English), a French content creator did a pretty good video on the topic:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=q4xZArgOIWc

Additionally, Geothermal plants can emit CO2 (even a lot of CO2) in some geological configuration.

All of that makes Geothermal (for electricity) a bit controversial as "Renewable".

I precise that there is absolutely nothing wrong about low temperature Geothermal energy for residential heating and we should do more.

gus_massatoday at 2:14 PM

Geothermal is powered by fission Uranium and other heavy atoms deep in the Earth.

Solar is powered by fusion of Hydrogen in the Sun.

I'd use the same classification for both.

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Y-bartoday at 2:15 PM

Can’t speak for large scale sites with abundant volcanic activity… But for residential geothermal the bore hole has a lifetime based on how much ground water there is and how active usage it sees.

This is because using it cools the hole slowly and after a few decades (depending on how quickly ground water can dissipate heat gradient) a new hole need to be drilled a distance away.

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left-strucktoday at 2:05 PM

“Technically”

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