Geothermal Energy: How Big is the Potential?

This video comes with a quiz that lets you check how much you remember: quizwithit.com/start_thequiz/1694173328172x2343595…

Your intelligence and “dry” sense of humor is such a hilarious and productive mix. Your message is so much more effective because of your creative delivery.

I was an exchange student in Basel near Stauffen at that time. 😵 The geothermal project in Basel lead to several earthquakes within a few months... It really scared us because the old buildings aren't designed to resist so many earthquakes!

I love the way that you explain things. You keep it simple, you use relatable examples and your deadpan one liners are hilarious!:face-green-smiling:

Typical drilling depths in New Zealand are about 2.5km in the Taupo region. It helps greatly to have a supervolcano handy that you can drill into.

As a drilling engineer who has been drilling geothermal wells since 2009, I approve this video.

Wow! I've never seen such a thorough reporting on geothermal development. Thank you! Fascinating!

About 15 years ago, I had my house installed with a geo system (a heat exchange , 15,000 dollars US). They dug about 10 feet in the ground to put the pipes. It actually worked quite well. My furnace didn't go on very much. Even the manufacturer was surprised. They said it would go on when the temperature drop below 40 degrees f. I found it to be better (more in the 30s f.), but the water table level is quite high in my area. I live in Michigan U.S.

Your well prepared, succinct, intelligent and informative videos keep my mind alert! The subtle and dry ironic touch is unmissable!

" ... including Pluto." Finally, Pluto gets some love ❤️. (I knew SH was the best!)

Seems so easy, complicated in detail. Very interesting and informative. I was in Staufen last summer by bicycle, I can report, it still exists

I've often wondered what became of this technology. When I attended MTSU in the '70s, there was projects related in heat pump technology, and there were projections that geothermal energy would save us from the situation that now exists. Steam drives turbines and heated water is easily done with heat generated close to the earth's core. I appreciate this report on something that I thought was dead due to the stranglehold carbon based fuels had on energy production.

Hello, I'm an American living in Thailand but I come from an area in southeast California. The Imperial Valley has at least 11 geothermal plants but back in the 90's when Los Angeles was having blackouts from not having enough power. They had, the day before, called all of the geothermal plants and told them to shutdown because they didn't need there power. At the time the geothermal plants in the Imperial Valley (4) could produce enough energy to power all of Southern California. The reason for them to shutdown the cheap energy was so they could raise their rates. Once they got there increase they called up the geothermal plants and told them to turn it on again. Now they could give their shareholders a very nice return on their investments and screw the rate payers.

So much more than just “drilling a deeper hole” Thanks for the insights.

Love the dry humor. I have worked in a similar office.

Such a relief when you are not exposed to terms like "catastrophic", "shocking" or "disaster".

Thanks! It’s an interesting subject that I have often wondered why it isn’t pursued more often…Living in Tuscany, there are dozens of thermal spars around where water flows out of the ground at temperatures in excess of 40c. Also, the entire area around the Gulf of Naples is highly volcanic. I was unaware of the serious difficulties in trying to harness this font of energy though.

150 km north of Stauffen, is Strasbourg, a French city with half a million people. Here too there was a geothermal project started in 2019. The plant caused 15 earthquakes. The last 2 where at a magnitude of 3.5. This killed the project

Excellent presentation- more problems with the drilling than I knew about. One other problem that might be worth mentioning is the depletion of the localised geothermal resources. In the 1970s, I visited the Wairakei geothermal power station in New Zealand. At the time of my visit, the plant had been running for a number of years and the steam field pressure had already dropped such that not only had new wells had to be drilled, but some of the nearby geysers had ceased to erupt.

That Invasion joke totally caught me off-guard. Well played.