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Originally Posted by freebeard
I find some amusement in the fact that the fusion energy industry 'always ten years away' has produced the millimeter wave laser that will enable deep, hot geothermal power a reality. Anywhere.
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Geothermal energy is plausible in many regions. Here in the West, it faces many of the same hurdles as nuclear energy - excessive Green Legislation. We have three geothermal power plants along the fault line cutting underneath the Salton Sea, here in Southern California. The "hot rock" is relatively close to the surface and easily accessible with standard drilling technology. However, the costly litigation keeps these power plants limited in number, size and advancement because of the time spent in court placating Green Groups.
Just recently, lithium was found in great abundance! Right in the geothermal hot spots! Now big players and big investments are fighting to rapidly develop the deposits for lithium mining and the power production will be a secondary by product. And wouldn't you know it? Pure water will be a "waste stream" of lithium extraction. Just what the desert region needs! Capitalism will do what it always does . . . find the money! There is money to be had in triplicate!
Poor fish, birds and pestilent mosquitos will have to bend to the will of power production.
If you can't tell, I'm being facetious. The Salton Sea was accidently created and is now a stinky, festering disaster area. The powers that be are thinking mostly about cleaning up the area with the tax money boon.
With laser drilling, you won't have to look for a disaster area to put up a power plant. You can drill down past any useable water tables and then use advanced Super Critical Carbon Dioxide turbines to extract the heat energy and convert it to electrical energy! Easy Peasy! No nuclear waste or proliferation threat. Let's go for it!
Oh, the Catastrophic Greenhouse Warming crowd thinks we should use "proven" solar and wind power going forward. And that will be that!
If it is such a catastrophe, should we not use every possible resource?
A short clip from the Minions out at SWRI.
It does not explain fully and leaves some erroneous assumptions open but it does graphically show how compact and energy dense it could be. And no, it doesn't run on CO2. It uses carbon dioxide in a closed loop. You must provide heat input.