geothermal

Why the World Should Only Depend on Geothermal Energy

The temperature increases by 50 degrees fereignheit for every mile underground. Therefore, in order to get to waters boiling point (212 degrees), a 5 mile deep hole should be sufficient.

If there was a pipe that went 5 miles undergound and came back up to the surface, water could be pumped into it. When the water gets to the bottom of the pipe, which is very hot, it will be heated into steam. This steam will rise to the surface of the earth. It will then power a steam engine which will be an electric generator. This engine will run until the earth's heat 5 miles below us wears out, which will be many generations from now.

If there are a lot of these steam engines there will be a superabundance of electricity, which can than be used for a wide range of things. The most important would be to get rid of the United States' dependency on oil. This would be accomplished by using electricity to separate water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen, which can be used togather as fuel for an engine. There are already in existence cars which have these engines. They are not being used because the fuel for them isn't sold anywhere.

    In addition to the U.S. being more independent and saving money, there would be no more pollution! Also, with an overabundance of energy, plants can be built which recycle all of our garbage. The only reason we don't have these plants now is because the cost of energy to do this far outweighs the benefits of recycling.
     The largest benefit would be the money saved. Let's try to get an estimate of how much money will be required to fund research and development of a pipe that goes 5 miles underground, pumps water down it so that steam comes back up to the surface. Let's also try to estimate how long it will take to develop it. Also, once a working model is developed, how long will it take to set one of them up to power an electric generator.
     How much money does the U.S. spend each year on fossil fuels? How much of that goes to other countries? What are the most polluted citites in America? (LA, Houston, NY) Since oil is the reason the U.S. gets involved in Middle East politics, how much money does American involvement cost per year? (This should include homeland defense, the war on terrorism) How much money has the Iraq war cost so far? How many people suffer and die as the result of America's dependency on oil? (War, CIA covert operations, etc..) Let's compare these costs with how much it will cost to drill a hole 5 miles underground and send water down it.
     Currently, the deepest hole ever dug by man is in Russia, not far from the border of Finland. It is called the Kola well. It goes about 8 miles underground. It was dug because geologists wanted to research underground activities. The project started in 1970 and ended in 1994. The total cost: about 100 million dollars. The total cost of the war in Iraq as of July 2003: about 50 billion dollars. The second deepest hole ever dug is the Bertha Rogers gas well in Oklahoma. It is about 6 miles deep (31,441 feet). The drilling was stopped when it hit molten sulfur.
    America should engage in a large scale research project that would drill a hole underground that would be used to absorb earth's heat energy. It should be comparable to America's project that landed men on the moon. In the early 60's president Kennedy announced that the U.S. was going to land men on the moon by the end of the decade. This project was run by NASA. The government pretty much gave NASA a blank check so that everything needed to land on the moon would be available: the cost did not matter. The technology was not yet available to even get into space. However, when you combine the best minds and unlimited funding, the necessary inventions can be made. And that was the case in the 60's. We should do the same thing now--give a blank check to NASA or some other organization so they can develop the technology to send water underground to come up as steam. Right now a blank check has been given to fight the global war against terrorism and Islamic Radicalism.

Another great benefit to the U.S. developing geothermal and/or newer energy sources would be that countries wishing to develop nuclear technology will have no excuse as to why they want nuclear technology. Right now, Iran is developing nuclear technology because they say they need a source for electricity. The U.S. is trying to pressure Iran into making their use of nuclear facilities open to the world. The European Union opposes the U.S.'s tough stance against Iran and favors a softer stance that Iran could take advantage of by secretly creating bombs. The reason for the EU's stance is to build allies based on opposition to the US. The EU believes that Iran won't secretly or accidentally let nuclear weapons get into the wrong hands. The US believes that Iran will. If there were alternative sources of electricity for Iran that were economic and clean, the Iranians would have no reason at all to develop nuclear technology other than to have more powerful weapons. The US's tough stance on Iran would then and only then be justified in the eyes of the international community.

For those of you that don't agree with me, follow these links and do your own investigation.
Geothermal Energy is the way of the future. It's the next Microsoft. (Those who invest early will be BIG winners.)

Links:

U.S. Department of Energy: Geothermal Energy Home

-Check out Web Resources

Sandia National Laboratories

-probably the most important geothermal drilling research is going on here right now.

Geothermal Education Office

-check out slide show, slide #'s 12 and 13

Geo-Heat Center (Oregon Institute of Technology)

GeoHeat Center Quarterly Bulletin

Stanford Geothermal Program

SMU Geothermal Lab

Society of Exploration Geophysicists

-Check out Drilling and Completions

Society of Petroleum Engineers

Lots of Links

Geothermal Resources Council

International Heat Flow Commission

International Association of Volcanology and
Cheimistry of the Earth's Interior

International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics

International Ground Source Heat Pump Association

Geothermal Energy Association

Geothermie.de

Camborne School of Mines

Book: Geothermal Energy as a Source of Electricity

Excellent Geothermal Power FAQ

Geothermal Institute, NZ

Geothermal Explorers Ltd. (Swiss)

Learn About Energy - Geothermal

Geo Energy - Important facts, stats

Thermal Calculations of Geo Heat (Equations, graphs)

More Calculations - low temp HP

Cost of Iraq War So Far - A Must See!

Iraq Body Count

Clean Alternatives to Geothermal Energy

Links:

Wind

Solar

Wind Power Monthly

International Solar Energy Society

Danish Wind Energy Association

U.S. Department of Energy Solar Power Program

American Wind Energy Association

Solar Electric Power Assoctiation

Illustrated History of Wind Power Development

Gosolarpower.com

U.S. Department of Energy Wind Energy Homepage

Fusion

Underwater currents

Fusion Power - Fusion Research at UKAEA Culham

Ocean Current Technical FAQ

Argonne National Lab - Technology Development Division

Marine Current Energy

Fusion Power Associates

Tidal Power Stations

BBC News - Fusion Power 'Within Reach'

U.S. Fusion Energy Science Program

Anti-matter

Fusion Power - Who needs it?

Antimatter: Mirror of the Universe

Biofuel

Scientific American - What is antimatter?

Chicken Stuff

What's the Matter with Antimatter?

Chicken Manure Fuel

Chicken Powered Car

Conservation

Biofuels

International Energy Agency - Energy Conservation

Biodiesal

The Energy Conservation Center - Japan

Biofuel Cells

Texas State Energy Conservation Office

Pacific Biofuel

U.S. Department of Energy - Energy Efficiency and Renewables

Biofuel and Renewable Energy Sources Info

Save energy

There must be another way

Hydro

Other

National Hydropower Association

Green Pages - The Global Directory for Environmental Technology

Hydropower Information and Links (ME3.org)

Visionengineer.com

The Messiah of Hydro Power

EU-Russia Technology Centre

Renewable Energy Policy Project - Excellent

Hydro power is currently the world's largest renewable source of electricity, accounting for six per cent of worldwide energy supply or about 15 per cent of the world's electricity.

The potential size of hydro power in the world is about four times greater than that which has been exploited at this time.Currently heading the International Network on Small Hydro Power (IN-SHP), an international member-based organisation working in partnership with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and headquartered in Hangzhou, China, Dr. Damodaran coordinates and provides know-how for SHP projects.

More than half of the world's hydro power energy is in China, he says. When China produces 26,000 MW electricity from SHP, India's production is a meagre 500 MW, apart from the projected 1,000 MW, the work of which is going on. --The Hindu (Feb., 2002)

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Renewable Resource Data Center

California Energy Commission

Green Plains Energy