What do you know about geothermal energy? Have you even heard of it I wonder? lol And if you have what do you think about it? Do you think geothermal energy holds potential to eventually replace coal and natural gas as a sustainable energy source for our housing energies? (such as heat, electricity..etc)

Does anyone know any one who knows all the pros and cons of geothermal energy and still loves it as a new energy concept?

Some people even have their houses and driveways hooked to some sort of geothermal energy source that melts the snow off their driveways and keeps their house warm.

I know this is ALOT of questions but I just seriously want to get a good conversation about this on this thread.






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Isn't Geothermal Energy mainly used for heating up water ?

It cannot really repalce coal as I do not think this really produces electricity, all I know is that it is used for heating up water or your house .

Didowe : Actually by heating the water it creates steam which turns a turbine which generates electricity.

Yes it will replace coal

What do I know about Geothermal energy? I am by no means an expert in the area, but I did work for a drilling rig manufacturer building the machines. Some of these rigs were sold to companies for geothermal purposes. So I have a slight knowledge of the procedures of how the geothermal preparation and installation goes. I have done a little bit of research into geothermal energy as well.

I think geothermal coupled with both solar and wind power can dramaticely reduce our dependance on fossil fuels. The reason I say we still need solar and wind energy is because geothermal power plants are only efficient in highly geothermal active areas, namely where there is a large amounts of tectonic heat like yellowstone.

As far as heating a house or other small buildings, it is very practical. It can be used pretty much anywhere, because the earth literally everywhere has heat in it. They aren't even required to be that deep. I still think it should be coupled with solar energy at the house hold level. Geothermal for the heat, Solar for the electricity. I don't think it is practical to have a turbine system in every house.

Why they continue to build pipes to funnel gas to new houses, instead of putting in a cheaper pipe that constantly generates heat is beyond me. It seems we never hear about geothermal in the media, it is always wind/solar/bio fuel.

On a semi-unrelated note, my father ( who has numerous solar panels hooked up to batteries) once told me that if you are still hooked up to the power grid and generate more electricity than you used, the electric company will pay you! That is pretty much the most awesome thing ever. I want to send the electric company a bill, let them see how they like it! haha

warmaker : I agree that we likely wont see a shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy anytime soon. It would take decades to convert everything over to a new system. There is also an abundance of coal/gas right now with new mines opening seemingly everyday. It should also be pointed out that there is way less money to be made with renewable energy than our current un renewable sources. This may be considered part of a conspiracy theory but it is also undeniable.


You mentioned that coal is cheap to mine, which it is relative to other sources like off shore oil or tar sands/bitumen because the money put in to extract it is more efficient compared to the energy output.  However it costs much more money to mine a resource, taking years to do in the process, than it is to install geothermal which is more or less an in an out process. Let me explain it. How do they determine where coal is? Geologists have a decent idea of places to look then they send a drill rig out to do a TON of probe holes. I know this from personal experience working behind rigs probing for bitumen and coring coal samples. They scope out the size of the coal mine by drilling to see how deep it is in places and how much surface area the mine will cover. Now how about geothermal? They don't need geologists for the most part since it can go just about any where. All they do is drill a few holes (the amount depending on how much energy is needed) and install the conductive piping. By the time the mine has even become fully operational they have all ready spent more money than it would cost to get the same energy output from geothermal methods.

This is really where profitability comes into affect. If companies could make an equal or more amounts of money from a renewable resource than we would be all over it , but it is much harder to charge people for something that is basically free (of course there would still be installation and maintenance costs) . Look up the Tesla Tower if you have free time and you may see a good example. Basically Tesla invented a system that wirelessly would emit electricity  naturally created and stored in dolomite aquifers. The problem that arose is that you are unable to monitor how much electricity each person uses, meaning you can't really charge them for it. This was fine for Tesla who wanted it to be free and revolutionize the industry, but his main investor J.P. Morgan could not profit from this so he ended his funding. I can understand why  someone might not want to essentially give his money away.

In my last post I said "Why they continue to build pipes to funnel gas to new houses, instead of putting in a cheaper pipe that constantly generates heat is beyond me." and I was sort of lieing. I understand why they don't do it ... because of profits. It all boils down to making money in our society unfortunately.