Sage will use fracking techniques similar to those that have helped extract vast amounts of oil and gas from shale rock. But rather than drill for fossil fuels, Sage plans to create fractures thousands of feet beneath the surface and pump water into them. The heat and pressure underground should heat the water to the point where it can be used to generate electricity in a turbine, all without the greenhouse gases that are causing global warming…
The Energy Department estimates that geothermal could provide 90,000 megawatts of U.S. electric capacity by 2050 if technologies keep improving, a twentyfold increase from today… [end quote]
Geothermal power has been around for decades. But traditionally, geothermal plants were limited to places where companies could easily tap underground hot water reservoirs close to the surface. Fracking technology enables location of an energy plant anywhere … except for places with underground oil and gas.
One thing that was not mentioned in the article but is of importance is that unlike traditional geothermal, this technology provides storage and load following capability. Plays well with renewables, in other words.
Also not mentioned: fracking can cause earthquakes.
But then the need for energy to power AI so people can draw pictures of cats with hats is so great, why worry about something small like your house falling down?
Our active geothermal area, near Geyserville, CA is a constant source of small shakers, low level, but pretty constant. They increased a bit when they began pumping wastewater down into the area, not sure it still is being done, but anything that lubes those cracks, adds to the shakers… I haven’t looked at the power output in the area in ages, it’s just part of the scenery, clouds of visible steam in the winter…
The above link shows annual electricity production from the Geysers of around 4600 GWh per year.
Overall, for the US, geothermal energy is a very small portion of the whole, less than 1% of total electricity generation.
Iceland probably produces the highest portion of its electricity from geothermal, at around 30%.
I like to think of geothermal as a form of nuclear power. It is estimated that about half of the Earth’s internal heat comes from the radioactive decay of uranium, thorium, plus some other elements. The other half is leftover primordial heat from the original formation of the planet.
Tectonic fault lines cause earthquakes when they slip past each other.
Fracking just facilitates the slippage. Instead of a massive earthquake you get lots of smaller, less dangerous ones. Either way the tectonic plates will move and build and destroy mountains.
Lawsuits for cracks in the wall probably become possible. A cost of doing business in many cases. Structural damage is potentially costly but probably rare.
Living in CA, earthquakes are semi-expected… Early days in this home, which is on clay/adobe soil, led to several cracks around doorways when larger quakes hit… Mesh tape, refinishing them over the years seems to have solved it… But a bigger one had me concerned when I began to hear the nails squeaking, but it settled OK… We just do a Brace & Bolt program to add brackets to the foundation tot he framing to prevent it slipping ogg the foundation… a few days of drilling and crawling around under there, inspection and all, a $3K grant helped cover the costs… So far so good, I like little ones, hopefully relieving tensions under there, several known fault lines nearby, so it’s just part of living here…
Well, the article did say this: The Feb. 25 earthquake was only a magnitude 4.9, which would not traditionally be considered very dangerous. But it was able to destroy older and more vulnerable buildings because it was so close to the surface – only about one kilometer deep according to the new study.
Sure sounds like the fracking induced earthquake destroyed buildings to me.
Yes, that’s an unusual occurrence. Yes, the buildings were not up to modern codes. Yes, this was outside the US. But it did happen, with people dead and injured as a result.
I have lived through at least 100 of the small earthquakes (<4.0) and at least a dozen larger earthquakes (>4.0) in my 65+ years living in both N & S California. Geothermal and fracking earthquakes in US are in the small earthquake category.
Each year the southern California area has about 10,000 earthquakes. Most of them are so small that they are not felt. Only several hundred are greater than magnitude 3.0, and only about 15-20 are greater than magnitude 4.0. If there is a large earthquake, however, the aftershock sequence will produce many more earthquakes of all magnitudes for many months. https://www.usgs.gov/programs/earthquake-hazards/cool-earthquake-facts
In northern California we have had many infamous earthquakes. In 1989 I was working on the 23rd floor of the Bechtel Office building in San Francisco when the 6.9 Loma Prieta happened.
I had just settled in to watch the Giant’s game, sitting in my recliner, when it began rocking and didn’t stop, I did get up, stood at the back doorway, listening to the trees rattle n shake from the tremors… Sonoma County, CA…
In Cupertino it shook so badly that a lot of the swimming pool water was sloshed right out of the pool. We found out what was happening via Caracas, they were watching the game on TV and got the news from the broadcaster’s blip.
