Hot rock Power

Here’s an update to my previous post about geothermal power, Ultra-deep Power Plants.

Discover Magazine has wrapped a few extra links and is asking an important question.

If we could extract all the geothermal energy that exists underneath the United States to a depth of two miles, it would supply America’s power demands for the next 30,000 years.

Getting at all that energy is not feasible. There are technological and economic impediments. But drawing on just 5 percent of the geothermal wealth would generate enough electricity to meet the needs of 260 million Americans – producing 260,000 megawatts of electric power and reducing coal by one-third. Doable by 2050.

So what is holding us back?