[Newsbot]

Title: In Huge Breakthrough, Iceland Has Uncovered the Ultimate Renewable Energy Source
Category: Environmental
Posted By: DrCaleb
Date: 2014-02-05 07:26:13

[Freakinoldguy]

If this works it's great news since it'll mean alot more cheap gas for my Pickup

But if it's as cost effective as some people claim people everywhere will flock to electricity rather than gas and oil to heat their homes.

The only problem with this is that it won't be cheap for consumers since the Gov't's will claim they need more hydro capacity, or upgrades and the only way they'll be able to do that is by raising hydro rates to a level so high nobody will be able to afford it thus driving people back to natural gas and oil.

No matter what they do the consumer will always end up paying more for less which means that just because it's renewable there's no guarantee you and I will ever see a cheaper alternative to what we have now.

[DrCaleb]

Freakinoldguy Freakinoldguy:

But if it's as cost effective as they say people everywhere will flock to electricity rather than gas and oil to heat their homes.

In Iceland, home and office heating is free. They also run pipes under the streets and sidewalks and put geothermal heated water through them to melt all the snow and ice. Screw snowploughs!

Freakinoldguy Freakinoldguy:

No matter what they do the consumer will always end up paying more for less.

All depends on who we let run the show.

[Freakinoldguy]

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

Freakinoldguy Freakinoldguy:

But if it's as cost effective as they say people everywhere will flock to electricity rather than gas and oil to heat their homes.

In Iceland, home and office heating is free. They also run pipes under the streets and sidewalks and put geothermal heated water through them to melt all the snow and ice. Screw snowploughs!

Freakinoldguy Freakinoldguy:

No matter what they do the consumer will always end up paying more for less.

All depends on who we let run the show.

Independents only supply some of the power. It's the Gov'ts who runs the grid in pretty much every province so there'd be no getting away from them and their hands the cookie jar mentality and I don't see any reigning Gov't even the Greens giving away that power to independents.

Given human nature and that includes the assholes we elect we'll be paying as much if not more for this "renewable" resource than we do now for the ones that are finite.

[ShepherdsDog]

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

Freakinoldguy Freakinoldguy:

But if it's as cost effective as they say people everywhere will flock to electricity rather than gas and oil to heat their homes.

In Iceland, home and office heating is free. They also run pipes under the streets and sidewalks and put geothermal heated water through them to melt all the snow and ice. Screw snowploughs!

Freakinoldguy Freakinoldguy:

No matter what they do the consumer will always end up paying more for less.

All depends on who we let run the show.

they also heat the soil and greenhouses that allow them to grow their own pineapples

[Public_Domain]

[Xort]

Good old nuclear power. No better source for energy around.

[Public_Domain]

[Xort]

Public_Domain Public_Domain:

You don't think this would be better?

It is nuclear power.

90% of the heat in the earths core is from nuclear decay.

[Public_Domain]

[rickc]

It sounds pretty good to me. I know we have several geothermal hotspots out west here in North America. This sounds like leaps and bounds ahead of what we were doing in the way of geothermal power. I say full steam ahead!

[ShepherdsDog]

The radioactive decay in the core produces 45 -90% of its heat which in turn heats the mantle, so it really works on the same principle as a reactor

[Freakinoldguy]

About 15 years back I can remember walking around a new subdivision in South Surrey with my brother in law who lived a couple of blocks away and watching them installing geothermal heating systems in each new home. TBH I found it fascinating and thought what a great idea. The cost was built into the house so it wasn't apparent to the homeowner but, if what they claimed was true would supposedly save the owner the cost of the system in only a matter of a few short years.

Well long story short. A couple of years later I asked my brother in law how it was working out for the people who had them and he informed me that they had all had to upgrade their undersized conventional heating systems because the geothermal ones didn't produce enough heat for the homes.

And now we get to the truth of the article.

$1:

But the number of places that will be able to harness the power of magma is few. Striking magma is anything but common, especially at depths as shallow as the 2 km, where it can be feasibly harnessed for energy. Realistically, only volcanic regions where the Earth's crust is thin stand to benefit. There are also concerns about the ability to safely and sustainably drill multiple holes to extract the heat

Just another sensational headline with no substance. The truth is that unless you live in a place like Iceland this is pretty much a non starter making it only renewable for certain people and certainly not the world like the headline makes you think.

So as for replacing gas and oil well, don't sell your shares anytime soon.

[andyt]

Freakinoldguy Freakinoldguy:

About 15 years back I can remember walking around a new subdivision in South Surrey with my brother in law who lived a couple of blocks away and watching them installing geothermal heating systems in each new home. TBH I found it fascinating and thought what a great idea. The cost was built into the house so it wasn't apparent to the homeowner but, if what they claimed was true would supposedly save the owner the cost of the system in only a matter of a few short years.

Well long story short. A couple of years later I asked my brother in law how it was working out for the people who had them and he informed me that they had all had to upgrade their undersized conventional heating systems because the geothermal ones didn't produce enough heat for the homes.

And now we get to the truth of the article.

$1:

But the number of places that will be able to harness the power of magma is few. Striking magma is anything but common, especially at depths as shallow as the 2 km, where it can be feasibly harnessed for energy. Realistically, only volcanic regions where the Earth's crust is thin stand to benefit. There are also concerns about the ability to safely and sustainably drill multiple holes to extract the heat

Just another sensational headline with no substance. The truth is that unless you live in a place like Iceland this is pretty much a non starter making it only renewable for certain people and certainly not the world like the headline makes you think.

So as for replacing gas and oil well, don't sell your shares anytime soon.

You seemed to realize this is used to generate electricity in your first post, here talk about direct geothermal heating. You do realize they're different, don't you. What your bil is talkig about are just heat exchangers, working on the heat in the ground. I don't know if the term geothermal even applies to it. I saw an ad for such systems just recently, also wondered if they can produce enough heat to really stand alone.

But we do have geothermal hotspots in BC. One such is the Meager Creek area behind Pemberton. Used to have nice hotsprings til they were destroyed by a flood. Great to sit in after coming off a glacier trip. That are has been talked about quite a bit for harnessing conventional geothermal power, it might be suitable for this approach as well. The point is that the project doesn't have to be right next to the homes you're heating, since it's electricity and can be conducted. Meager Creek is still a lot closer to Vancouver than the Peace River area.