Nobel Prize Winner Calculates HDR Geothermal Potential

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMrxC-qEHb8]

Conan:   Now, what about … you talk in the book about geothermal energy …
Al:   Yeah, yeah.

Conan:     and that is, as I understand it, using the heat that’s generated from the core of the earth …

Al:   Yeah.

Conan:   … to create energy, and it sounds to me like an evil plan by Lex Luthor to defeat Superman. Can you, can you tell me, is this a viable solution, geothermal energy?

Al:   It definitely is, and it’s a relatively new one. People think about geothermal energy — when they think about it at all — in terms of the hot water bubbling up in some places, but two kilometers or so down in most places there are these incredibly hot rocks, ’cause the interior of the earth is extremely hot, several million degrees, and the crust of the earth is hot …

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/190379/innumerate-al/john-derbyshire

I worked on the Hot Dry Rock program at Los Alamos more than 30 years ago, so I am thinking the idea isn’t quite as new as the inventor of the Internet thinks it is. We never encountered rocks at several million degrees, and I suspect the drill bits might have had some problems if we did.

About Tony Heller

Just having fun
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5 Responses to Nobel Prize Winner Calculates HDR Geothermal Potential

  1. Amino Acids in Meteorites says:

    I couldn’t find the original video of it on YouTube because of copyright. But I did find this one:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMrxC-qEHb8

  2. Sean says:

    Turns out there are a few unintended consequences as well. The most notable is increased seismic activity in the area of the wells. I’d recommend that California exploit this technology as aggressively as possible.

  3. omnologos says:

    pompous ineffective incompetent narcissistic

    would be a perfect British PM!

  4. Paul H says:

    Give Hansen a chance to “adjust” the numbers and I expect we’ll soon have them upto a million degrees or so.

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