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Mar 2022
9:54pm, 21 Mar 2022
12,219 posts
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jda
Geothermal energy is renewed by radioactive decay and we are many orders of magnitude off making a significant dent in it.
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Mar 2022
12:26am, 22 Mar 2022
4,936 posts
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run free
Perhaps it is the start of screwing another part of our environment. Just as intensive farming is great cos it produces more but as time passed it became killed the soil and polluted the surrounding waters; FF gave us more power and as time went on global warming; plastic reduced our reliance on chopping down trees and well you know the rest.
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Mar 2022
12:27am, 22 Mar 2022
87,442 posts
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Hanneke
Exactly: one step forwards, two steps back!
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Mar 2022
12:41am, 22 Mar 2022
4,938 posts
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run free
The only problem is - the world will focus on needing more power. Trying to use more technology to fix things requires more energy such as swapping from FF cars to electric cars. The world demands more automation to do everything for us so that we can be zombies that think we are living it up in 4 walls surrounded by plastic grass & plastic animals, relying on search engines to tell us how to live.
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Mar 2022
8:23am, 22 Mar 2022
41,796 posts
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HappyG(rrr)
Jda - my reply was that I agree, the total thermal energy available from the earth's core is huge and we wouldn't deplete that noticably.
However, does the process of drilling through the crust, tapping and possibly disrupting flow of heated materials etc. and the impact on the crust, plates, and movement affecting earthquakes and volcanoes may be realistic?
On another subject, I was encouraged by the reaction of Radio Scotland listeners to the news article that Scottish airports will take years to recover from the loss of passenger numbers due to the Covid pandemic, by saying universally (OK, 3 out of 3!) that all airports should be planning for lower numbers, higher costs and greener forms of air travel, if they want a sustainable business, because a business plan based increasing passenger numbers on current aircraft is definitely not acceptable.
Well done listeners. Worrying that the airport industry and government aren't as clear on the subject!  G
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Mar 2022
8:32am, 22 Mar 2022
16,808 posts
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rf_fozzy
Sorry, it's wrong, but that made me smile.
No, no chance of Geothermal doing much damage to anything. Neither significantly cooling the earth's core, nor causing earthquakes.
Much like if we harvest wind power using turbines, that's not going to do anything either (I used to find the stories about changing earth's rotation both hilarious and desperate).
As with all things, needs to be done in the right place and cannot possibly be a silver bullet to solving everything.
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Mar 2022
8:41am, 22 Mar 2022
41,799 posts
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HappyG(rrr)
That's great then fozzy - geothermal has no risks or downsides? Nothing like the way fracking, or building on flood plains etc. do? Good news! Is it just very local considerations then, like where you do it and local geology?
I get that harvesting wind, solar and tidal doesn't "take" anything or significantly disrupt massive air, light or water flows. But even where you site a wind turbine or very large farm of them does matter, and where you put tidal turbines matters to marine life etc.?
Thanks for putting me right though. G
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Mar 2022
8:42am, 22 Mar 2022
41,800 posts
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HappyG(rrr)
I did pose it as a *question* by the way - "is there a risk of..." rather than a statement! G
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Mar 2022
9:04am, 22 Mar 2022
16,809 posts
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rf_fozzy
There are always risks with absolutely everything in life! But as I understand it, not along catastrophic lines causing the kind of issues described.
Yes, local siting and impact is important and needs to be considered.
But NIMBYism can masquerade in this field (literally sometimes) too.
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Mar 2022
9:06am, 22 Mar 2022
16,810 posts
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rf_fozzy
A quick google suggests that in the wrong place, it can cause local earthquakes, but that's again down to getting the siting right and doing the local impact assessment.
Haven't got time to do more of a dig at the moment.
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