[HN Gopher] Quaise Energy - Unlocking the true power of clean ge... ___________________________________________________________________ Quaise Energy - Unlocking the true power of clean geothermal energy Author : xojoc Score : 37 points Date : 2022-04-09 21:08 UTC (1 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.quaise.energy) (TXT) w3m dump (www.quaise.energy) | mcculley wrote: | I don't know how to reason on the magnitudes and indirect effects | here. If we are using the temperature differential, don't we have | to vent that into the atmosphere? Does that heat eventually go | into the atmosphere anyway? | GlenTheMachine wrote: | Any use of energy eventually results in heat; that's just the | Second Law of Thermodynamics in operation. | | But this effect is orders of magnitude smaller than the | greenhouse effect. | mcculley wrote: | I am aware of the 2nd law. I am looking for data on the | magnitudes involved. Every time there is a promise of very | cheap energy, I wonder how we will deal with the waste heat. | throwawayboise wrote: | The waste heat will be radiated away to space. The premise | of global warming is that CO2 (and other "greenhouse" | gasses such as methane) cause more of the heat to be | retained in the atmosphere. | d--b wrote: | Can anyone with experience comment on how realistic that is? Both | in term of drilling, and in terms of how much power we could | extract per drill. | ajross wrote: | My response here is the same as what I say to proponents of new | nuclear technologies: it's gotta work on a _balance sheet_ , not | just in a pitch deck. This isn't a new technology enabling new | markets and new kinds of growth here, it's just... electricity. | And even as a renewable option, it needs to be able to compete | not just with fossil fuel generators with-all-the-externalities- | factored-in, but with _dams and windmills_ built with century- | mature technology. | | That's just a tall order. Should this be a legitimate research | topic? Absolutely. Would I put my money down as an investor on | this being a win? No. Should we be throwing public money at this? | Hell no, we should be building more turbines with that money. | Start on the weird stuff only once we've picked the low hanging | fruit. | marsven_422 wrote: | phs318u wrote: | Assuming the millimeter wave drilling technology does in fact | hold up (I imagine it draws a LOT of power), the re-use of | existing infrastructure (drill a hole at every power station site | that boils water to drive a turbine, with existing transmission | in place), is brilliant because that's a huge, huge cost avoided | - and indeed could be stood up in far less time (barring | government approvals) than most mega-scale alternatives. | | Full steam ahead! | | EDIT: tbh I did also think that this concept sounds like the | opening plot for a b-grade disaster movie - "The Day The Earth | Cracked Open". | asimpletune wrote: | Stupid question but is it possible to cool the earth's core if | this tech was scaled out and used massively? | trophycase wrote: | The short answer is no, the long answer is no, but the really | long answer is that everybody pretends that it's 100% safe but | I guarantee nobody predicted global warming occurring when | fossil fuels first started being used. There will be secondary | effects, we just don't know what they are yet | makerdiety wrote: | No one can predict anything when they don't have access to | the larger model. Assuming the real world corresponds to big | models rather than the small models and understanding people | usually have. | arnihermann wrote: | There has been some effort on going to really deep depths in IDDP | (Icelandic Deep Drilling Project) - see https://iddp.is/about/ | | If I remember correctly, they were never able to hit their goals | because of drilling down into magma chambers. The steam coming up | was also of a different scale than regular geothermal steam, | causing corrosion that has not been dealt with before. | | As far as I know, the main problem is coming up with casing | materials that can withstand the extreme corrosive environment at | scale and at cost, and for IDDP that's one of the main focuses. | huqedato wrote: | Sound too good to be true. | | 2024: First full-scale hybrid drilling rig -> 2026: First Super | Hot Enhanced Geothermal System rated to 100 MW... -> 2028: First | powerplant. | | This false prophet reminds me of Theranos/Elizabeth Holmes. | Always skeptical when hearing about such unicorns hunting for | idiots' money. | thekoma wrote: | Sounds promising. How realistic is the depth target of 20km | really? Also, I would assume this infrastructure will be less | applicable in locations with frequent earthquakes. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-04-09 23:00 UTC)