One percent of Australia's geothermal energy can produce 26,000 years of Electricity
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Australian scientists claim just by harnessing one percent of the country’s untapped geothermal energy from underground could produce 26,000 years worth of clean electricity power.
Australia is the world’s biggest coal exporter and primarily uses coal power to generate nearly 77% of its electricity. But recently the government wants to invest in more renewable sources.
The government announced today that it will allocate A$50 million (US$43 million) to help develop new technology to convert geothermal energy into electricity.
Resource Minister Martin Ferguson told Reuters:
"Geothermal energy which is sometimes known as hot rocks has got a huge potential for Australia, both as a solution to climate change and in terms of national energy security,"
The power is generated from geothermal sources by pumping water below the ground and the water is heated by the high heat source. The hot water is converted to steam, which then drive the turbines to generate power and electricity.
The earth central core (is about 9,000 degrees Fahrenheit) and the surrounding cores are very hot, but drilling to the center is impossible with current technologies. Luckily for the scientists, the geothermal sources are not far off from the grounds. Geoscience Australia, a governmental organization mapped the countries geothermal sources using the temperature recordings from oil and energy drilling firms’ recorded data from 5,722 petroleum and mineral boreholes. Some sources are located just five kilometers (three miles) from the ground.
Geoscience Australia’s Anthony Budd told Reuters:
"One percent of reserves would produce 26,000 years of energy supplies,"
Budd said “hot rocks” must be at least 150 degrees Celsius to generate electricity power and they have located a number of geothermal sources across Australia at a depth of one (0.60 miles) to five kilometers (three miles). And if they drill deeper, the temperature is even higher and can generate even more power.
A report by the Australian Geothermal Energy association said that the country can produce 2,200 megawatts of power by 2020, fulfilling 40% of the country’s electricity needs.
The total costs for a 10 to 50 megawatts power producing plant would cost A$120 (US$104.52) per megawatt hour, but for a 300 megawatts power plant, it would cost A$80 (US$69.68) per megawatt hour. These costs are the lowest for any renewable energy method according to the report.
The government wants to reduce the carbon emissions so it is trying to find more renewable energy option. Australia alone produces about 1.5 percent of the world’s carbon emissions because of its high reliance on coal power. Per capita wise Australia is the world’s biggest per-person polluter nearly five times more than China.
Initially the government will try different geothermal technologies to harness the power but later will determine the best one for other geothermal plants.
Google and others are also working on this Geothermal technology here in the U.S. Google invested $10 million in Enhanced Geothermal Systems. They estimate that by using this geothermal technology, just 2% of the heat below North America could meet the current energy needs of the country.
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Yes very interesting! I clicked on the bottom link to Google's investments just to learn more about it, but it's basically the same as your article here! haha
I would bet that this source of clean energy is available in most of the nations on Earth, and yet we are so addicted to the petro-narcotic that we will ignore it and go on in our exhaust-fumed daze until the bitter end.
Great hub!
CGull Now this is a super duper article. Very very interesting. Great job as always. regards Zsuzsy
So many times solutions are right under our noses. or feet in this case. yeaaaaaaa good hub!
Funride, you have raised a valid point, what if we disturb the earth core temperature, it may affect us also.
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Chef Jeff, I agree, we should invest more on clean energy. Solar and Wind potential is so enormous the governments and the utility companies are not innovating much. Hope there is a company like Google.
Thanks Zsuzy, hope it inspires the next generation to create something awesome :)
I agree Marisue, we just ignore it sadly.
unreal I live in Australia and I have never heard of this thanks for the info cgull8m .
Whew. 26,000 years of elctricity. That's a lot of years of electricity. ;)
I wonder what pumping up large amounts of heat from the Earth's core will do to global warming.
Eugene, thanks, it will create its own problem, that is why we have to figure out finding other hospitable planets, but one country can do it by themselves, we need to pool our resources together.
We get about 20% of our island's energy from geothermal. We have an erupting volcano about 6 miles from where I sit. Social and political issues prevent us from powering any more. So we ship in diesel fuel from the mainland to burn it at night in generator power plants around the island.
Geothermal power plants are small, silent and totally renewable. Anyone that thinks we have energy issues on this planet could be somewhat oblivious to the socio-politcal issues.
Then we have food, water and shelter...
Geothermal has always been an interesting source of electricity. In the past, the only way to tap into it was where hot water came near the surface naturally - like Yellowstone National Park in the US, or the Icelandic heat domes. The problem with leveraging this source was that the very act of using it changed forever the thing itself. Yellowstone has some classic springs where the early European settlers tried just to use the hot water, lowered spring levels, and changed them to geysers. Even after discontinuing the use of the water, the spring did not revert back to its original state.
This fact has made some environmentalists leery of geothermal power. Like damming rivers for hydro-power, the initial view was a minimal impact to the environment and totally clean energy, but the ultimate cost could be quite high.
The solution above is much better in that we humans don't simply pull water from the system, but cycle water through it. However, we must make sure we understand the impact of ANY radically new approach for making electricity to try to prevent any unintended consequences that may be irreversible. (Cooling the earth's core being an extreme, and unlikely, example.)
We've already screwed that up enough times in the past few millenia.
Interesting numbers for sure. We have an erupting volcano about 6 miles from where I sit. We get about 20% of our island's energy from geothermal. Social and political issues prevent us from extracting additional power. So we ship in diesel fuel from the mainland to burn it at night in generator power plants around the island.
From my humble view our energy issues seem to be much less about energy and much more about the surrounding socio-politcal issues. At least on our small island.
Thanks for your wonderful comments Brent and Margaret, couldn't agree with you guys more. We should respect nature always.
Wow, only 4.5 km, simple?
Brent,
It's ALWAYS about the socio-political issues. Usually there are several technological solutions to any given problem. THEN the PEOPLE (read socio-politcal units) have to figure out which solution best meets their needs.
Remember that when OIL was discovered it was a huge boon to society. The inhumane hunting of whales for blubber and oil could end, and the use of coal for heating (think of the pollution in London from burning coal) was ended.
Now, we find the cost of OIL products in terms of environmental impact to be unacceptable. The lower carbon emission choices all have their own downsides - solar, wind, geo-thermal, nuclear. The technologists can only tell us what the choices are and what the currently understood ramifications are. The people then have to decide which option is the most acceptable.
I've seen the lovely volcanoes on the big island in Hawai'i I would hate to see that natural process destroyed in some way by incorrect application of geo-thermal energy extraction. But I agree that shipping diesel from the mainland seems a stupid waste.
Thanks Margaret, we should find the best possible means to use these green sources. It could be done if all governments work together.
it is very good project
Geothermal is everywhere.
If you can drill deep enough you can find sufficient heat to provide power almost everywhere. The trick is to find places where you dont have to drill very deep.
Thanks Revanth, Fava. I think this is one of the sources governments should use and rely less on foreign oil.
wow thats really great ideal and its environfriendly.i think all the big countries shoud go for this option if possible.
If this new technology works by pumping water below the ground, Iam afraid that this act might cause soil collapses and earthquakes in the long run??
Britney, thanks for your comment, yes the governments can try any of these sources and see what works best.
Mahmo, I am sure the researchers will make sure it doesn't cause further problems, but if there is a safe way to do this we should explore more.
Jeez!!
! I bet the sales of shovels and spades in Austalia has increased:D
Thanks Compu-smart. :)
wow 26000 years of electricity
Aussie Aussie Aussie Ehh Ehh Ehh
funride Level 1 Commenter 3 years ago
I guess those are good news to our environment but I wonder what would happened if we cool down the Earth core... LOL OK, OK I was just kidding :D
Very interesting! Thanks.