America's Geothermal Breakthrough Could Unlock a 150-Gigawatt Energy Revolution(oilprice.com)
40 pointsby sleepyguy3 hours ago6 comments
  • WarOnPrivacy2 hours ago
    I worked on geothermal control systems a decade or so back. There are some less obvious applications for geothermal that reduce electric use (as opposed to generating electricity).

    The systems I worked on were for cooling larger structures like commercial greenhouses, gov installations and mansions. 64° degree water would be pumped up from 400' down, run thru a series of chillers (for a/c) and then returned underground - about 20° or 25° warmer.

    I always thought this method could be used to provide a/c for neighborhoods, operated as a neighborhood utility. I've not seen it done tho. I've seen neighborhood owned water supplies and sewer systems; it tells me the ownership part seems feasible.

    • wood_spirit2 hours ago
      In the nordics it is common to have ground source heat pumps (brine in closed circuit pipe or bore hole) that are run backwards in summer to cool the house while actually assisting in storing heat back in the ground to extract in the winter. It’s a bit like regenerative breaking on electric cars.
      • jjtheblunt4 minutes ago
        There was a new in 1988 house in Champaign, Illinois, USA that used the same system, and i mention that because it was a normal modern house, and it's the only one i've heard of with that system.

        It seems so smart.

    • Animats2 hours ago
      Shallow geothermal works fine for heating. And you can use the ground as a heat sink. But if you want to generate power, you need to get down to where temperatures can boil water. That's deeper than most oil wells. Fervo Energy claims to have found 270C at 3350 meters well depth. That's progress.
      • lostloginan hour ago
        > if you want to generate power, you need to get down to where temperatures can boil water. That's deeper than most oil wells.

        That’s going to be very dependant on location.

        Here in NZ there are regions where water is boiling at surface level.

        According to the below, 18% of our power is produced with it.

        https://www.eeca.govt.nz/insights/energy-in-new-zealand/rene...

    • solarpunkan hour ago
      I think you're describing what is known as "district energy" systems.
    • quickthrowman33 minutes ago
      District heating and chilled water is uneconomical for single-family homes. It does work well in medium to high density areas.
      • gambiting4 minutes ago
        I don't know how economical that is, but just as an anecdote - the town I'm from in Poland has district heating to all single family homes, town of about 20k people. And coincidentally, I now live in the UK and a new estate near me has district heating to all the houses they are building, not apartment blocks. So it must make some sense to someone, or they wouldn't be outfitting 100+ houses this way.
    • readthenotes12 hours ago
      Isn't that similar to how neighborhood heat pumps work?

      https://www.araner.com/blog/district-heating-in-sweden-effic...

  • jmward0129 minutes ago
    Here is an article that is a bit old but discusses the start of things [1]. It would be a bit ironic if fracking tech helped get us further from using natural gas. I think the reality will be if this gets established we will see rapid improvement as scale comes on line so if it is remotely economical now it will be massively better in 5-10 years. Of course the 'if' applies.

    [1] (2023) https://time.com/6302342/fervo-fracking-technology-geotherma...

  • Animats2 hours ago
    Oh, Fervo Energy again. They're trying to IPO, hence the hype. Wikipedia's warning: This article reads like a press release or a news article and may be largely based on routine coverage. (February 2026) This article may have been created or edited in return for undisclosed payments, a violation of Wikipedia's terms of use. It may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia's content policies, particularly neutral point of view.

    Here's a more realistic evaluation of Fervo.[1]

    [1] https://www.latitudemedia.com/news/what-fervos-approach-says...

    • w1an hour ago
      This isn’t really an evaluation of the company, just explaining how they had to use different financing approaches as they grew and derisked their technology (which makes sense).

      Compared to some other new approaches for getting clean base load power, it seems like they’ve been pretty grounded and methodical.

  • 2 hours ago
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  • taffydavid2 hours ago
    > Trump has shown support for geothermal energy projects in his second term in office, unlike for other renewable energy sources,

    He heard there was drilling involved

    • ryandrake2 hours ago
      It really is off-brand for this administration. They are only interested in energy sources you pull out of the ground, burn, and turn into CO2/pollution.
      • r3trohack3r21 minutes ago
        Pretty sure they’re interested in collapsing the cost of domestic energy production in a way that’s resilient to adversarial supply chain risk since energy production is the base of the economic pyramid - energy availability is upstream of nearly all economic output.
        • burkaman18 minutes ago
          They have spent immense effort blocking huge amounts of domestic solar and wind production, even paying off developers to simply not build planned power plants.
          • r3trohack3r15 minutes ago
            Didn’t know there were significant domestic supply chains for wind, solar, and battery tech. Thought a lions share of that was ultimately coming from China.

            Have any sources I can learn from?

            • burkaman10 minutes ago
              There aren't, and there certainly won't be if we keep blocking the industry at every turn. Maybe I'm misunderstanding your point but I don't see how this is relevant. Blocking a developer that wants to buy wind turbines from another country and install them in the US does not make domestic energy cheaper or make domestic supply chains more resilient. It's a one-time import, once it's installed the wind is domestic and free, the most reliable possible supply chain, much more than domestic oil or gas.
              • r3trohack3r6 minutes ago
                Seems fairly measured to say that it’s not in the interest of the U.S. to build its economic foundation (energy production) on top of a technology it’s incapable of producing without the assistance of a country that’s been fairly open about its plans to take kinetic action against the US sometime in the next 48 months.

                Help me understand.

            • 3eb7988a16637 minutes ago
              The IRA had enormous incentives to develop on shore renewable manufacturing. All of that was gutted in the BBB. Many of those burgeoning companies may have died in the interim as they saw that funding dry up, and realized they were working in an uphill regulatory environment.
      • tialaramexan hour ago
        It has exclusivity which might be enough, you can't own the sun (modulo Simpsons episode) but you might be able to "own" geological hotspots for this purpose, the same way you can "own" a coal mine or an oil well. Remember the goal here is to create poverty. I mean, obviously you say you want to create "wealth" but only in a relative sense.
      • ch4s3an hour ago
        They're pretty friendly to nuclear which comes out of the ground.
    • mmooss34 minutes ago
      Seriously, I wonder about why it's supported. Maybe the drillers are from the fossil fuel extraction industry.
      • D-Coder22 minutes ago
        > Seriously, I wonder about why it's supported.

        $$$.

  • mskoglyan hour ago
    The whole continent of America made a breakthrough?