Geothermal energy consists of exploiting the natural heat of the Earth’s subsoil. Indeed, under the earth’s crust is an immense source of inexhaustible heat. Moreover, the further down you go, the higher the temperature. It is this source of heat that John McLennan, a geomechanical engineer from the University of Utah, wants to try to exploit. For 45 years, John and his team have been trying to unravel the mystery of Earth’s heat. For this, they dug a borehole of about fifty meters for the FORGE project.
FORGE, a project to exploit mining resources
John McLennan had set up the FORGE project (Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy) in 4 years and it is worth $218 million. The goal of this project is to transform the dry and hot rocks that lie under the earth’s crust into renewable energy. Indeed, the internal heat can produce electricity. Note that the temperature of the center of the Earth is close to that of the Sun. As a result, the heat it gives off too. According to John, about 5,000 gigawatts of electricity can be extracted from this heat in the United States. That’s five times the output of all the power plants in America.
The advantage with geothermal energy is that it is flammable and operates 24 hours a day, so it can compete with solar panels and wind turbines. However, it is not at all easy to extract its underground vapors. Many companies have tried to exploit the mining background, but they have all failed. Indeed, it is necessary to have the right equipment and also to locate the sites well.
Various companies are already trying to harness geothermal energy
The FORGE project is not the only project that has tried to harness the Earth’s heat. In 1983, an oil company worked with the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Unlike FORGE, it has established itself in New Mexico. To extract the steam, it therefore injected water into deep fractures, but a major part of this water never rose to the surface.
In Australia, the same thing happened. The project was stopped after only 5 years of activity. However, the investments amounted to 144 million dollars. At first, the EGS projects were not successful. But currently located on the Franco-German border, three of these plants produce up to 11 megawatts capable of supplying up to 9,000 homes.
[related_posts_by_tax taxonomies=”post_tag”]
The post Researchers want to release the Earth’s heat to produce geothermal energy appeared first on Gamingsym.