this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2024
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Solarpunk technology

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cross-posted from: https://futurology.today/post/2274888

Tricks from the oil industry have produced a hot-rocks breakthrough

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago

I think this is mostly interesting for repurposing existing fossile fuel powerplants.

Add a relatively small geothermal power-plant on site for baseload demand plus a well sized grid battery and you can continue using a lot of the existing infrastructure of these older powerplants.

Due to security requirements this will not work with nuclear, even when using (largely theoretical) small modular reactors.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

Yeah this feels like a fluff piece.

This is all my opinion. Some rocks dissolve in water, which is how we have sinkholes, or water table contamination. Another problem is physics, the hot water you pump down need to be pumped back up, that is a large cost on its own. Even if it is 200°C steam will rise in atmospheric conditions not subterranean, nor will it easily go back into the hot side pipes as this illustrates.

Funny enough I do feel geothermal is an untapped resource. I think, and this is my thinking again, a closed loop phase change system (like your refrigerator) can really work, even in areas where geothermal heat is not that readily available.