Geothermal Energy Could Outperform Nuclear Power
Haley Zaremba is a writer and journalist based in Mexico City. She has extensive experience writing and editing environmental features, travel pieces, local news in the…
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.
