Deep in Bedrock, Clean Energy and Quake Fears

[groovedaddy]

BASEL, Switzerland — Markus O. Häring, a former oilman, was a hero in this city of medieval cathedrals and intense environmental passion three years ago, all because he had drilled a hole three miles deep near the corner of Neuhaus Street and Shafer Lane.

He was prospecting for a vast source of clean, renewable energy that seemed straight out of a Jules Verne novel: the heat simmering within the earth’s bedrock.

All seemed to be going well — until Dec. 8, 2006, when the project set off an earthquake, shaking and damaging buildings and terrifying many in a city that, as every schoolchild here learns, had been devastated exactly 650 years before by a quake that sent two steeples of the Münster Cathedral tumbling into the Rhine.

Hastily shut down, Mr. Häring’s project was soon forgotten by nearly everyone outside Switzerland. As early as this week, though, an American start-up company, AltaRock Energy, will begin using nearly the same method to drill deep into ground laced with fault lines in an area two hours’ drive north of San Francisco.

Residents of the region, which straddles Lake and Sonoma Counties, have already been protesting swarms of smaller earthquakes set off by a less geologically invasive set of energy projects there. AltaRock officials said that they chose the spot in part because the history of mostly small quakes reassured them that the risks were limited.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/business/energy-environment/24geotherm.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

[MADem]

1. This is going to get interesting, I think nt

[Nihil]

4. Although this might well be the type of "interesting" that is best viewed from afar ...

... like, quite a long way afar ...
:yoiks:

[MADem]

5. If California breaks off and starts heading for Hawaii, I don't want to be there, either! nt

[liberal N proud]

2. Brilliant idea

Let's poke at the fault until it kicks.

NOT!


:wtf:

[madrchsod]

3. the corner of northwestern il is an ideal spot to drill for heat.

the electricity provider for northern illinois drilled into solid granite to the depth where the water is warm enough to power turbines. the company decided not pursue this even though it was geologically and economically feasible. now they are building a solar panel facility in the south side of chicago.

[HamdenRice]

6. Anyone else old enough to remember the sci-fi howleder, "Crack in the World"?

Similar initial scenario, but the scientists decide to use nuclear bombs to get to the deep mantle, which causes a crack to begin running around the world, which eventually causes a huge plate to separate from the earth and throw a new moon into the sky.

:rofl:

But seriously, it does seem that if drilling is deep enough and cheap enough, geo-thermal should be a virtually unlimited source of clean energy. You don't have to do down very far to get hot, but not boiling temperatures, eg, the deep gold mines are extremely hot.

Wonder why it's not higher on the agenda.