Google does GEOTHERMAL

[Sparty]

Google has announced that its innovative advanced geothermal plant in Nevada is now operational

The US DoE estimates that geothermal could expand from its very humble beginnings to provide up to 120 GW of clean energy by 2050 – that'd be about 16% of the country's forecasted energy needs, delivered in a super-convenient, super-reliable fashion that's not dependent on weather and daily cycles like wind and solar.

Google's new geothermal plant uses a technique borrowed from the oil and gas industry to unlock clean, always-on geothermal energy.

Traditional geothermal plants require highly-fractured, highly-permeable rocks. (Australia's very hot, shallow, Hot Rock lenses are, unlike those overseas, horizontally layered and fractured, due to the tectonic shift of Australia into Asia. This horizontal layering and fracturing allows for the establishment of up to 4 times larger engineered heat exchangers than areas with vertical fractures. https://www.hotrockenergy.com/austra...-very-hot.html

Whereas Google's Nevada plant drills horizontally into deep rock and injects pressurized fluid to fracture the rock.

This technique makes geothermal energy accessible in a wider range of locations.

The Nevada plant:

Produces 3.4 megawatts of energy.
Brings water up from 8,000 feet below the surface.
Is a proof of concept for Fervo's technique.
Fervo's next project:

The Cape Station project in Utah.
Will produce around 400 MW of energy.
Is scheduled for grid connection in 2026.

The future of geothermal energy:

The US Department of Energy estimates geothermal could provide up to 120 GW of clean energy by 2050.

Fervo hopes to bring pricing down to the point where even deeper hot rock resources become exploitable.

Other companies working on geothermal energy:

Quaise is using fusion-derived particle beam technology to drill deeper holes.
Overall, the future of geothermal energy is looking bright. Read full article: https://newatlas.com/energy/google-fervo-geothermal/

Visit: https://www.hotrockenergy.com/

Note: As a general rule of thumb, a megawatt of power could power about 1,000 average-sized houses in the United States.

[Sparty]

https://newatlas.com/energy/quaise-d...ing-questions/