Geothermal is about to have its moment in the sun. Heat from the Earth’s core could provide a clean, steady, and limitless source of renewable energy to humans. The trick is finding the right technology to harness that heat.
Until very recently, geothermal energy for commercial use has only been feasible in places where that heat naturally reaches the surface of the Earth, such as geysers and hot springs. For example, Iceland gets a quarter of its energy from geothermal energy. But Iceland is a geological anomaly. Globally, geothermal energy accounts for just 0.5% of renewable energy. But now, the application of fracking technology borrowed from the oil and gas sector could totally revolutionize geothermal energy availability, and possibly even bring it to your own backyard.
Geothermal energy can be tapped anywhere and everywhere, if you have the will and the way to dig deep enough. And this could soon be possible at an economically viable scale through a method known as ‘enhanced geothermal systems’ which can tap into heat far, far below the ground. According to a 2023 report from Esquire, this technology, adapted from hydraulic fracturing used in the oil and gas industry, will “allow us to exploit the energy underfoot across the country, all with a carbon impact that is vanishingly small compared to most sources we depend on now.” These deep wells would pump out hot water, which can be used in turn to produce energy through various methods, before injecting that water back into the ground.
The potential for enhanced geothermal is massive – the Economist even projects that it could outperform nuclear energy output, while offering similar benefits. Like nuclear, geothermal operates with proven technologies, offers base-load, on-demand energy, and produces zero carbon emissions. The United States Department of Energy (DoE) has posited that geothermal energy could power up to 260 million homes nationwide by 2050.
It also has major bipartisan appeal, a huge boon to any new technologies hoping to get sizable and continued funding from government entities and private interests alike. The DoE projects that as little as $25 billion in public-private investment (less than the cost of the Vogtle nuclear power plant alone) by 2030 would allow the domestic geothermal sector to “reach liftoff” and set the industry up to reach a commercial scale by mid-century. Already, the federal government is funding research proving early-stage geothermal technology and setting the stage for the privatized acceleration of research and development.
Just this month, representatives from major oil companies and tech startups, as well as scientists and climate groups, met in Houston to kick off a $10 million series of summits focused on harnessing experience and technology gleaned from oil and gas to “build a new stalwart of the American power sector.” A bustling geothermal startup scene has cropped up in Texas as the stars align for geothermal’s meteoric rise in the United States energy mix.
Despite the groundswell of support for enhanced geothermal technologies and a bullish attitude from the private and public sectors alike, the geothermal sector still has a long way to go to achieve its potential. “As things currently stand, the geothermal sector has struggled with the common problems of emerging industries: the difficulty of raising sufficient money for projects that, however promising, have yet to prove themselves,” The Hill recently reported.
But if successful, commercial-scale geothermal energy's potential applications and impacts are nearly limitless. It would introduce a critical new source of dependable, zero-carbon power to the energy mix and provide a potential solution to some of our most pressing energy security issues. Already, pundits are positing that geothermal could feed the insatiable energy demands of Artificial Intelligence, as well as providing an avenue to cheaply produce green hydrogen, which could be essential in decarbonizing hard-to-abate sectors such as heavy-duty trucking, shipping, aviation, iron and steel, and chemicals and petrochemicals.
By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com
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