Repost at will... I have a novel idea; let’s start by fixing the energy problem. A valid demand for the 99%would be to start a Apollo style program to upgrade the energy grid and build safe emission free, non nuclear, electrical generators. Although the technology already exists, so it won’t take quite as much innovation as it did to get to the moon. Our power is generated in, basically, the same way weve done it since the 1800s, that is to say we generate heat to boil liquid to create steam, which provides power to turn turbines which generate the electricity. We, as a race, live on a rock with a molten core. Anywhere you happen to be standing on the earth 30,000 feet below your shoes there is an effectively unlimited supply of heat. The oil industry routinely drills to 20,000 feet. The ambient temperature at that depth is around 700 degrees, you can run a closed system ge generator (average price of three quarters of a million dollars used) that produces 6 megawatts off that forever. Geothermal energy acts as a price stabilizer that offsets U.S. dependence upon highly volatile fossil fuel power markets. Depths you would have to drill vary though, for instance, in Yellowstone scientists estimate that the molten rock and lava is between 5,000 to 20,000 feet underground. By drilling to a depth of three hundred feet, the temperature has been confirmed to be 400 Fahrenheit. In Vermont you would, of course, have to drill a few thousand feet deeper. Modern geothermal designs do not require hydro-fracking but simply place a heat exchange at an adequate depth. Maybe the oil industry will let us use wells that no longer produce oil to generate electricity. The best part is geothermal power does not need outside fuel to operate—geothermal relies on a constant source of free fuel. Geothermal is capital intensive, thus all of the fuel is essentially paid for upfront. However, once the power project is built, most of its power production costs are known and few market parameters can modify them. The initial investment for a geothermal plant is a bit more expensive than a gas or coal plant. It would have to be, you have to drill a deep hole first. As opposed to a natural gas plants which initial costs make up one third of the total investment in the plant, geothermal plants initial investments account for two thirds of the total costs of the planet. These costs do not include societal costs of asthma, bronchitis, acid rain etc…The dichotomy of plant costs is more than adequately compensated for by the fact that continuing operations of a geothermal plant cost less due to not requiring any fuel and producing no waste, Co2, particulate emissions, or really anything other than electricity and heat. Add to that that you could literally pipe the excess heat to local homes to reduce the need for individual home heat generation. Hell we could pipe hot water to homes for showers! Greenhouses right next door! We could have free public showers. Clean homeless people, in clean clothes! Dare I say it? JOBS! Let’s use fossil fuels as portable energy, go ahead and drive that Hummer guilt free, and leave electrical generation and home heating to an emission free source of energy that will be around as long as the earth continues to spin on its axis.
Posted on: Sat, 05 Apr 2014 02:52:50 +0000
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