Hydrothermal Power

[XmisterIS]

CAVEAT: I may have my prices completely wrong here, it's only what (I think) I heard on the telly box the other night.

Manchester Uni are drilling a 2km hole to tap water at 80 degrees C to provide water heating for a new complex that's being built there.

Now then, the reporter said (I think - and this is where I may have it completely wrong), that to drill a hole to proved heating for 10,000 houses would cost £10million. That works out at £1000 per house, which is dirt cheap and would provide limitless free hot water, except for the cost of maintaining the equipment, which wouldn't be pricey.

So ... if it costs £10M to drill a hole for 10,000 houses, then it would cost £1Bn to drill a hole for 1 million houses - which is the size of a city - again, this seems a cheap investment, compared, for example, to the sorts of figures that we see flying around in the world of banking.

Presumably, you could also hook some electricity-generating equipment up to the flow of hot water and provide light and cooking facilities for those houses too, again, all for free except for the cost of maintenance.

So ... if it's so cheap to extract (almost) limitless, free, green energy from the Earth for a relatively low price, why isn't this technology being used all over the UK? Or have I got the cost figures wrong?

 

[Spinney]

Not everywhere will have suitable rocks through which you can pump the water to be heated. And the rocks will cool down faster when you extract heat than they would otherwise do - although I have no idea how long the heat source will last.

 

[XmisterIS]

To remedy the problem of rocks cooling, perhaps more holes than are required could be drilled and they could be cycled so that some are left "dormant" for a while to heat up again. Also, perhaps the places that are suitable could sell the energy to the places that are not suitable - I guess that would mean the North of the UK selling energy to the South and the North getting rich! As for how long the source will last, my guess is that it will last a very very long time - the Earth is unbelievably huge compared to humans.

 

[XmisterIS]

MEIN GOTT IN HIMMEL!

I have just realised that I meant to post this in P&L but I posted it in commuting by mistake.

I are an idiot.

Admin ... please move my thread?

Danke Schoen

 

[fossyant]

I think you mean man met uni. The bore holes are being used for passive heating and cooling within the building, and it's nothing like 80c.

 

[XmisterIS]

I think you mean man met uni. The bore holes are being used for passive heating and cooling within the building, and it's nothing like 80c.

I forgot to mention that I was having a conversation at the same time as not really listening to or watching the TV ...

 

[BenM]

Just an aside to say that this technology is tried and tested.... in the car park of the Southampton Toys R Us store there is the head works of the local hot rocks heating borehole, used for the library and IIRC local authority buildings. It has been there for at least 20 years. Needless to say, Toys R Us arrived long after the borehole was put in.

B.

 

[Piemaster]

More commonly known as geothermal energy. Quite common in Iceland, where the earths crust is on the thin side.

It was Newcastle on the news last night. Northen geography is probably all the same and meaningless to you southerners though

 

[BenM]

Northen geography is probably all the same and meaningless to you southerners though

William Smith was a southerner (OK he wound up in Scarborough) and without him you northerners wouldn't have had geology. Rocks, of course, but no geology

I would have to get my geological survey maps out to see what is under Newcassel

B.

 

[mgarl10024]

Looking longer term, if you're taking heat from the core, what happens when it runs out?
If the core stops being molten, it stops spinning, we lose our magnetic field, and get pelted by solar flares?

 

[germanicdogman]

this will explane what keep the heat going inside
http://www.physorg.com/news62952904.htmll

 

[dand_uk]

Looking longer term, if you're taking heat from the core, what happens when it runs out?
If the core stops being molten, it stops spinning, we lose our magnetic field, and get pelted by solar flares?

This sounds similar to an argument I heard from people objecting to windfarms. They beleived that the spinning blades would act like propellors moving the earth out of its current orbit of the sun, dooming us all.

 

[Fnaar]

But if EVERYBODY starts drilling holes, the world will eventually collapse in on itself, and then where would we be, eh?

 

[cycletron]

What if they accidentally drill into the molten core? Volcano!

 

[steve52]

huh!!! im unimpressed i saw this and tought cool, rushed out to the shead and retrivied my trust b&d and an old long bit i inherited from grandad, away to cut a long storie short ,or to cut to the crunch i set about drilling lots of holes with the intention of generatinging some heat when it hit me!!! i was drilling, and i should have been boring!! can anyone tell me the differance ? ie is this boreing enough?