Two to three miles below our feet\u00a0lies<\/a>\u00a0a nearly inexhaustible source of energy, and a number of startups are working to harness it to provide carbon-free electricity. Unlike solar and wind generation, which depend upon a shining sun or a stiff breeze, geothermal power could offer consistent 24\/7 energy derived from heat that increases the deeper into the earth’s crust we go.<\/p>\n

“Recovery of just 1\u20132% of the thermal energy stored in hot rock at 3 to 10 km depths would be sufficient to meet world energy consumption for many centuries,”\u00a0noted<\/a>\u00a0a report at the World Geothermal Congress in 2021. The geothermal gradient\u00a0averages<\/a>\u00a025\u201330 degrees Celsius per kilometer, originating from the decay of radioactive elements and residual heat from the earth’s formation.<\/p>\n

The most easily accessible geothermal resources in the U.S. are\u00a0located<\/a>\u00a0on federal lands in the western states. But proposed geothermal projects have been stymied for years by having to undergo as many as six environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act before proceeding.<\/p>\n

In contrast, oil and gas projects have been granted\u00a0categorical exclusions<\/a>, which exempt them from detailed environmental reviews due to their minimal impact. In April the Bureau of Land Management, which administers 245 million acres of federal land,\u00a0finally adopted<\/a>\u00a0categorical exclusions for geothermal energy exploration.<\/p>\n

As of 2023, traditional geothermal power generated only about\u00a00.4 percent<\/a>\u00a0of the total electricity in the U.S., mainly because it’s currently limited to areas where steam is produced by water heated in naturally occurring fissures within near-surface hot rocks. A National Renewable Energy Laboratory report\u00a0estimates<\/a> that tapping heat at depths between three and seven kilometers (two to four miles) could generate over 4,200 gigawatts in the United States. That’s more than three times our current generation capacity<\/a>\u00a0of about 1,200 gigawatts.<\/p>\n

Several startups are tackling the considerable technical hurdles for accessing heat at these depths. Using drilling and fracking techniques developed by the oil and gas industry, Fervo Energy is now\u00a0constructing<\/a>\u00a0a 400-megawatt enhanced geothermal power plant at Cape Station in Utah. The company has contracts to\u00a0supply<\/a>\u00a0320 megawatts to Southern California Edison\u2014enough to power 350,000 homes.<\/p>\n

The Canadian company Eavor uses complex drilling to connect two vertical wells with many horizontal multilateral wellbores to\u00a0create<\/a>\u00a0a giant underground closed-loop system. This Eavor-Loop system circulates a proprietary fluid to harvest heat and \u2028generate electricity. Eavor is currently\u00a0drilling wells<\/a>\u00a0in Germany 15,000 feet underground where its loop system will extend about 200 miles. The loop will circulate hot water to heat homes and businesses and generate 8.2 megawatts of electricity.<\/p>\n

Other companies are pursuing even more ambitious and technically challenging efforts to draw heat from\u00a0superhot rocks<\/a>\u00a0even deeper down where the temperature exceeds 400 degrees Celsius. Accessing such temperatures could deliver up to 10 times more energy than conventional geothermal wells. An environmental think tank, the Clean Air Task Force,\u00a0estimates<\/a>\u00a0we could generate 4,300 gigawatts by developing just 1 percent of superhot rock energy in the United States. Depending upon location, this could involve drilling wells six to nine miles deep. The deepest well ever drilled was the\u00a0Kola Superdeep Borehole<\/a>\u00a0in the Soviet Union, at 7.6 miles.<\/p>\n

Several U.S. companies are developing and testing drilling techniques that can withstand high underground temperatures by initially drilling into superhot rocks in volcanic zones closer to the surface. Hephae Energy Technology has recently\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0its Pandora210 directional\u00a0drilling tool<\/a>, which can work at up to 210 degrees Celsius. The company has signed an agreement to\u00a0deploy<\/a>\u00a0its drilling technology in collaboration with the Turkish geothermal company GMK Enerji. The startup boldly\u00a0claims<\/a>\u00a0its technology will enable the drilling of 1 million geothermal wells into superhot rocks globally by 2050.<\/p>\n

AltaRock Energy has teamed up with Quaise Energy to deploy Quaise’s novel\u00a0millimeter wave drilling<\/a> technology to reach superhot rocks. Instead of mechanical drilling, Quaise’s directed energy<\/a>\u00a0technology<\/a>\u00a0increases drilling speeds by 10 times through melting and vaporizing rock for removal. AltaRock has begun a demonstration\u00a0project<\/a>\u00a0drilling into superhot rocks at the relatively shallow depth of 10,000 feet near the Newberry Crater in Oregon. The initial project aims to develop\u00a035 megawatts<\/a>\u00a0of generation capacity with the potential to grow to\u00a02,500 megawatts<\/a>, enough to power 2.5 million homes. (For reference, the capacity of the two North Anna\u00a0nuclear power<\/a>\u00a0plants in Virginia is 1,800 megawatts.)<\/p>\n

Estimates suggest that superhot rock geothermal could supply electricity at costs between\u00a0$20<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0$46<\/a>\u00a0per megawatt-hour, comparing favorably with natural gas, wind, and solar power, currently at $37, $38, and $36 per megawatt-hour, respectively.<\/p>\n

With some federal regulatory barriers finally being eased, geothermal power could become a significant source of steady, carbon-free renewable electricity for Americans.<\/p>\n

The post Geothermal Power Could Produce Abundant Clean Energy, If We Let It<\/a> appeared first on Reason.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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