**Unlocking the Potential of Geothermal Energy**

The concept of harnessing geothermal energy has been gaining attention in recent years, and for good reason. This clean and renewable source of electricity and heat has the potential to significantly reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and mitigate climate change. However, there are still challenges that need to be addressed before geothermal energy can become a mainstream solution.

One of the key technologies being developed to unlock the potential of geothermal energy is Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS). EGS involves drilling into hot rocks deep beneath the Earth's surface to access heat that can be used to generate electricity. This process involves pumping water down to fill cracks and allow pressure to form new cracks, which can then be drilled through to create pathways for the hot water to flow. By opening up these pathways, it is possible to extract hot water from the rock and use it to generate steam, which can then drive a turbine to produce electricity.

A report by MIT in 2006 found that EGS could provide electricity at a cost as low as three point nine cents per kilowatt-hour, roughly equivalent to a coal-fired power plant. The United States government has estimated that new geothermal power plants could produce 60 gigawatts of electric power on American soil by 2050, mostly through EGS systems.

However, the development of EGS is not without its challenges. One of the main concerns is the potential for triggering earthquakes. In 2017, drilling at a proposed site for EGS in Pohang, South Korea, is thought to have triggered an earthquake of 5.4 magnitude that injured 135 people. A previous incident occurred at an EGS plant in Basel, Switzerland, in 2006 when drilling may have caused the quake of magnitude 3.4 and several buildings were damaged.

Despite these challenges, there is still real hope for expanding geothermal energy. Engineers are developing new kinds of drills for geothermal wells and better techniques for cementing wells drilled into hot rocks. They are also working to improve their ability to monitor seismic activity and assess the risk of earthquakes early on.

In fact, advances in drilling technology and monitoring equipment have made it possible to reduce the risk of earthquakes associated with EGS development. The Bassel accident, which occurred in 2006 when an EGS facility was located over a seismic fault, highlighted the importance of protocols for monitoring seismic activity. In this case, fluid injection was halted immediately once the shaking started.

While there is still much work to be done, it's clear that geothermal energy has the potential to play a significant role in reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and mitigating climate change. However, easing permitting rules and encouraging commercial interest in this clean energy source may require some political will.

**The Challenges of Drilling for Geothermal Energy**

Drilling for geothermal energy is not without its challenges. The process requires great volumes of fractures and cracks to be created in the rock, which can have disastrous consequences if not managed properly. In addition, drilling is very expensive, and the productivity of the well can be too small to make the project worthwhile.

As a result, it's difficult to find investors willing to bet their money on geothermal energy projects. This makes it essential to develop new technologies and techniques that can improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of drilling for geothermal energy.

One of the main obstacles to the development of geothermal energy is red tape. There is less environmental paperwork and fewer approvals required for drilling for oil than drilling a geothermal well. Tax credits for wind and solar power projects are 30 percent, while the tax credit for geothermal energy is only 10 percent on top of all this.

Despite these challenges, there is still real hope for expanding geothermal energy in the United States. The industry can build on recent improvements in drilling technology and better techniques for cementing wells drilled into hot rocks.

**The Potential of Geothermal Energy**

Geothermal energy has the potential to play a significant role in reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and mitigating climate change. This clean and renewable source of electricity and heat can provide power to homes, businesses, and industries, while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants associated with fossil fuel combustion.

One of the most exciting aspects of geothermal energy is its potential to provide both electricity and heat. This makes it an attractive option for countries where access to both electricity and heat is a priority. Additionally, geothermal energy can provide power even when the sun is not shining or wind is not blowing, making it a reliable source of energy.

The use of geothermal energy also has significant environmental benefits. It does not produce any greenhouse gas emissions during operation, and it does not require the mining of fossil fuels. This makes it an attractive option for countries looking to reduce their carbon footprint and transition away from fossil fuels.

**Gravity: The Force That Shapes Our Planet**

Gravity is a fundamental force that shapes our planet and governs the motion of objects on Earth. It's a fascinating topic that has captured the imagination of scientists and engineers for centuries. In this section, we'll explore the science behind gravity and its impact on geothermal energy.

**How Gravity Works**

Gravity is a fundamental force that arises from the interaction between masses. According to Newton's law of universal gravitation, every point mass attracts every other point mass by a force acting along the line intersecting both points. This means that every object with mass warps the fabric of spacetime around it, creating a gravitational field.

The strength of gravity depends on the mass of the objects and the distance between them. The closer two objects are to each other, the stronger the gravitational pull between them. This is why planets orbit their stars and why galaxies cluster together in vast cosmic structures.

**Gravity and Geothermal Energy**

Gravity plays a critical role in the development of geothermal energy. It's the force that drives fluids through rocks and creates pathways for hot water to flow. In order to harness this heat, engineers need to drill into hot rocks deep beneath the Earth's surface, where gravity is strongest.

The strength of gravity also affects the pressure and temperature conditions at great depths. At these depths, the pressure and temperature are extreme, and only a specialized drilling technology can access them. This makes it essential to develop new technologies and techniques that can withstand these conditions.

**Monitoring Seismic Activity**

One of the biggest challenges associated with EGS development is monitoring seismic activity. The risk of earthquakes is high when drilling into hot rocks, and engineers need to be able to monitor this activity closely in order to mitigate the risks.

New monitoring equipment and techniques are being developed to improve our ability to detect and respond to seismic activity. These include advanced seismometers that can detect even small earthquakes, as well as sophisticated software that can analyze data from multiple sources.

By improving our understanding of seismic activity and developing new technologies to monitor it, engineers can reduce the risk of earthquakes associated with EGS development. This will make it possible to develop geothermal energy projects more safely and efficiently.

**Conclusion**

Geothermal energy has the potential to play a significant role in reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and mitigating climate change. However, there are still challenges that need to be addressed before this clean and renewable source of electricity and heat can become a mainstream solution.

The development of Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) is one of the key technologies being developed to unlock the potential of geothermal energy. By drilling into hot rocks deep beneath the Earth's surface, it is possible to access heat that can be used to generate electricity.

While there are still many challenges associated with EGS development, including the risk of earthquakes and the need for advanced monitoring equipment, the potential rewards are significant. With continued investment in research and development, it's possible to overcome these challenges and make geothermal energy a major contributor to our global energy mix.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis episode of real engineering is brought to you by brilliant a problem solving website that teaches you to think like an engineer one of the biggest challenges facing mankind today is our quest to transition to renewable energy overhauling our entire electricity grid requires drastic changes to be made in the way we produce transport use and store electricity we have explored in past videos that with the lowering cost of solar and wind we are beginning to hit a point of imbalance in the grid where places like California are wasting massive amounts of energy in the summer months when solar is at its peak and not producing enough in winter to deal with this problem California is now installing gigantic battery storage facilities in places like Moss Landing to store that excess for later use but the amount of battery storage that they will require as our percentage of renewables increases is going to cost the state billions if not trillions we could drastically decrease this dependence on batteries if we could find a nice stable energy source that did not harm our planet some want to turn to nuclear energy but what if I told you this solution may be lying directly under our feet imagine an ancient hidden energy source deep within every square meter of our planet's surface it's clean flexible virtually limitless completely renewable never turns off and virtually carbon free geothermal energy is produced by the Earth's inherent heat the center of the earth is as hot as the surface of the Sun through convection that heat warms the outer layers of the planet but where does that heat come from much of it comes from gravitational forces when the planet first formed four billion years ago some heat is generated from friction as denser elements make their way to the Earth's core the other source of Earth's internal heat occurs in the upper mantle and crust where the decay of radioactive isotopes like potassium-40 creates energy and in turn heat if we could find a way to safely and cost-effectively access that heat our energy problems would be solved in year that he does come to the surface in some easily accessible locations at temperatures of 700 degrees or more rocks become partially melted becoming magma driving a variety of geothermal phenomena if magma flowing underground heats gases or water it can create bubbling hot springs and geysers undersea hot vents and natural steam vents these features can provide water that's more than 200 degrees more than enough to run a steam turbine geothermal hot spots like this are found near the boundaries of tectonic plates like Iceland in volcanic Li active areas like Turkey or in some places where the Earth's crust is thin like America's Yellowstone National Park these places provide low hanging fruit to harvest the Earth's heat for our energy needs each year enough heat flows to the planet's surface to meet our total global energy consumption twice over and the geothermal reservoir is boundless heat within 10 kilometres of Earth's surface contains roughly 50,000 times more energy than all fossil fuel resources worldwide yes geothermal energy makes up less than 1% of global installed electricity capacity this isn't even a technology issue of the global potential for geothermal power using off-the-shelf technology only 7% has been tapped so in the fight to transform our global energy system why haven't we adopted this energy source in a serious way let's first look at our low-hanging fruit that are not being used to their full potential naturally occurring hydrothermal reservoirs feature hot water that percolates near the surface through porous or cracked rock layers this is the easiest form of geothermal energy to harvest and can be tapped in several ways which we've been doing for centuries human societies have used the heat from low-temperature geothermal energy for millennia among the most famous examples may be the hot springs of Bath England established by Roman engineers in 60 seee here 1 million liters of water percolates to the city center of bath every day at a temperature of about 45 degrees heating recreational baths and heating some buildings this hot water replenishes itself as rain that falls in nearby hills seeps through porous limestone deep underground where it is heated and rises back to the surface but convenient locations like this where the right combination of a water cycle with porous rocks underground and a heat source close enough to the surface to heat it are rare and ones that can provide water with enough heat and pressure to run a steam turbine are even rarer this particular source is not suitable as 45 degrees as far off the lowest temperature we can employ there are three basic types of geothermal energy generators all three share the same basic idea take hot water or steam from a geothermal reservoir and run it through a steam turbine where it loses energy and condenses before being pumped back underground to keep the cycle going dry steam generators take the steam directly from the source to run the turbine a flash steam power plant takes extremely hot water under pressure above 100 degrees and expands it quickly to lower its boiling point and turn it to steam to run the steam turbine these both require higher temperature sources that are rare but a relatively common in geothermally active regions like Iceland Italy Austria and around the Pacific Ring of Fire and in these locations geothermal energy is common and is expected to grow as much as 28% in the next four years with countries in Southeast Asia expected to see the largest growths like Indonesia and the Philippines but we want to exploit geothermal energy outside of these regions no matter how much power we extract we can't transport it fair before power losses due to resistance in the cables saps it away the third type of generator provides the highest potential for expanding geothermal energy as it can utilize the lowest temperature sources this system is called a binary cycle system in a binary cycle power plant warm water from a geothermal source passes through a heat exchanger where as heat with a closed loop containing a fluid with a low boiling point like pentane which has a boiling point of 36 degrees the lower boiling point allows it to transition to a gas at a much lower temperature allowing it to run a turbine at a lower temperature this system has allowed countries like Germany which lacks any shallow depth geothermal resources to grow their geothermal energy market in recent years where temperatures as low as 100 degrees Celsius being utilized that figure is important because the higher the temperature the deeper we have to drill different areas have different geothermal gradients which is a measure of how quickly temperatures rise as we drill down this map shows a rough estimate of the geothermal gradient across the US with the highest gradients been found in Oregon and Idaho reaching as high as 70 degrees per kilometer this is important as to access this heat in areas where it doesn't naturally come to the surface in an accessible way we need to drill down and the further we need to drill the more expensive it becomes typically we have only used geothermal resources where the natural permeability of the rocks allows a convective heat cycle but a new technology by the name of enhanced geothermal systems or EGS may open the door to geothermal energy in more regions it works like this the first step is to drill an injection well into a formation of hot rocks then engineers inject fluid at pressure to form cracks or enlarge existing ones this increases the area over which heat exchange with the rocks can occur to increase this area even further a non-toxic and degradable material is pumped down to fill these cracks and allow the pressure to form new cracks as we drill further down once we have opened an adequate number of passages for the water to fill we can drill additional holes that can act as an outlet for our hot water as we pump more underground a report by MIT in 2006 found that EGS could provide electricity at a cost as low as three point nine cents per kilowatt-hour roughly equivalent to a coal-fired power plant the united states government esta it's that new geothermal power plants could produce 60 gigawatts of electric power on American soil by 2050 mostly through EGS systems now I know what you are thinking this sounds a lot like the controversial practice of fracking but it doesn't use toxic fracking fluid which can seep into our water cycle it uses water and some safe additives but it's not all plain sailing to make this work we need to create great volumes of fractures and cracks and this can have some disastrous consequences in 2017 drilling at a proposed site for EGS in Pohang south korea is thought to have triggered an earthquake of 5.4 magnitude that injured 135 people a previous incident occurred at an EGS plant in Basel Switzerland in 2006 when drilling may have caused the quake of magnitude 3.4 and several buildings were damaged both projects were cancelled as a result red tape is a huge obstacle for geothermal energy in the United States for example there's less environmental paper work and fewer approvals required for drilling for oil than drilling a geothermal well tax credits for wind and solar power projects are 30 percent while the tax credit for geothermal is only 10 percent on top of all this drilling is very expensive and as we have seen doesn't guarantee a successful geothermal plant you could waste months of your time digging a two kilometre hole in the ground and the productivity of the well could be too small to make the project worthwhile this makes it difficult to find investors willing to bet their money on it it simply makes more sense to invest in solar and wind despite the challenges there's real hope for expanding geothermal energy the industry can build off of recent improvements in drilling technology engineers are developing new kinds of drills for geothermal wells and better techniques for cementing wells drilled into hot rocks the earthquake risk is real but engineers have protocols for monitoring with seismometers to ensure that the seismic risk can be assessed early on in the case of the Bassel accident the EGS facility was located over a seismic fault due to the proximity of hot rocks to the surface once the shaking started fluid injection was halted immediately so far geothermal projects haven't attracted strong political support in the West both they also haven't managed to draw major opposition suggesting that easing permitting rules for the technology may not be so challenging as commercial interest in this clean energy source Rises political support force should follow especially if some smart politician realizes that it can be a rallying call for getting out of work oil drilling texts back to work sometimes the struggle to convert the global energy system to renewables can seem out of reach and feel hopeless but in the case of geothermal energy there's an exciting source of electricity and heat that could power our future and it's right below our feet as I said at the start of the video much of the energy present within the earth is formed as a result of gravitational forces you can learn everything gravity is capable of by taking this course on brilliant this course will take you from the very basics of what gravity is and build your knowledge up to the point of being able to apply Kepler's laws of planetary motion and understand orbital mechanics like using the slingshot effect where spaceships use a planet's gravity to increase their speed it's a fascinating course that I can't recommend enough or you could complete one of brains daily challenges each day brilliant presents you with interesting scientific and mathematical problems to test your brain each daily challenge provides you with the context and framework that you will need to tackle it so that you can learn the concepts by applying them if you like the problem and want to learn more there's a course quiz that explores the same concept in greater detail if you are confused and need more guidance there's a community of thousands of learners discussing the problems and writing solutions daily challenges are thought-provoking challenges that will lead you from curiosity to mastery one day at a time if I have inspired you and you want to educate yourself then go to brilliant org ford slash real engineering and sign up for free and the first 500 people that go to that link we'll get 20% off the annual premium subscription so you can get full access to all their courses as well as the entire daily challenges archive as always thanks for watching and thank you to all my patreon supporters if you'd like to see more from me the links to my Instagram Twitter subreddit and discord server are belowthis episode of real engineering is brought to you by brilliant a problem solving website that teaches you to think like an engineer one of the biggest challenges facing mankind today is our quest to transition to renewable energy overhauling our entire electricity grid requires drastic changes to be made in the way we produce transport use and store electricity we have explored in past videos that with the lowering cost of solar and wind we are beginning to hit a point of imbalance in the grid where places like California are wasting massive amounts of energy in the summer months when solar is at its peak and not producing enough in winter to deal with this problem California is now installing gigantic battery storage facilities in places like Moss Landing to store that excess for later use but the amount of battery storage that they will require as our percentage of renewables increases is going to cost the state billions if not trillions we could drastically decrease this dependence on batteries if we could find a nice stable energy source that did not harm our planet some want to turn to nuclear energy but what if I told you this solution may be lying directly under our feet imagine an ancient hidden energy source deep within every square meter of our planet's surface it's clean flexible virtually limitless completely renewable never turns off and virtually carbon free geothermal energy is produced by the Earth's inherent heat the center of the earth is as hot as the surface of the Sun through convection that heat warms the outer layers of the planet but where does that heat come from much of it comes from gravitational forces when the planet first formed four billion years ago some heat is generated from friction as denser elements make their way to the Earth's core the other source of Earth's internal heat occurs in the upper mantle and crust where the decay of radioactive isotopes like potassium-40 creates energy and in turn heat if we could find a way to safely and cost-effectively access that heat our energy problems would be solved in year that he does come to the surface in some easily accessible locations at temperatures of 700 degrees or more rocks become partially melted becoming magma driving a variety of geothermal phenomena if magma flowing underground heats gases or water it can create bubbling hot springs and geysers undersea hot vents and natural steam vents these features can provide water that's more than 200 degrees more than enough to run a steam turbine geothermal hot spots like this are found near the boundaries of tectonic plates like Iceland in volcanic Li active areas like Turkey or in some places where the Earth's crust is thin like America's Yellowstone National Park these places provide low hanging fruit to harvest the Earth's heat for our energy needs each year enough heat flows to the planet's surface to meet our total global energy consumption twice over and the geothermal reservoir is boundless heat within 10 kilometres of Earth's surface contains roughly 50,000 times more energy than all fossil fuel resources worldwide yes geothermal energy makes up less than 1% of global installed electricity capacity this isn't even a technology issue of the global potential for geothermal power using off-the-shelf technology only 7% has been tapped so in the fight to transform our global energy system why haven't we adopted this energy source in a serious way let's first look at our low-hanging fruit that are not being used to their full potential naturally occurring hydrothermal reservoirs feature hot water that percolates near the surface through porous or cracked rock layers this is the easiest form of geothermal energy to harvest and can be tapped in several ways which we've been doing for centuries human societies have used the heat from low-temperature geothermal energy for millennia among the most famous examples may be the hot springs of Bath England established by Roman engineers in 60 seee here 1 million liters of water percolates to the city center of bath every day at a temperature of about 45 degrees heating recreational baths and heating some buildings this hot water replenishes itself as rain that falls in nearby hills seeps through porous limestone deep underground where it is heated and rises back to the surface but convenient locations like this where the right combination of a water cycle with porous rocks underground and a heat source close enough to the surface to heat it are rare and ones that can provide water with enough heat and pressure to run a steam turbine are even rarer this particular source is not suitable as 45 degrees as far off the lowest temperature we can employ there are three basic types of geothermal energy generators all three share the same basic idea take hot water or steam from a geothermal reservoir and run it through a steam turbine where it loses energy and condenses before being pumped back underground to keep the cycle going dry steam generators take the steam directly from the source to run the turbine a flash steam power plant takes extremely hot water under pressure above 100 degrees and expands it quickly to lower its boiling point and turn it to steam to run the steam turbine these both require higher temperature sources that are rare but a relatively common in geothermally active regions like Iceland Italy Austria and around the Pacific Ring of Fire and in these locations geothermal energy is common and is expected to grow as much as 28% in the next four years with countries in Southeast Asia expected to see the largest growths like Indonesia and the Philippines but we want to exploit geothermal energy outside of these regions no matter how much power we extract we can't transport it fair before power losses due to resistance in the cables saps it away the third type of generator provides the highest potential for expanding geothermal energy as it can utilize the lowest temperature sources this system is called a binary cycle system in a binary cycle power plant warm water from a geothermal source passes through a heat exchanger where as heat with a closed loop containing a fluid with a low boiling point like pentane which has a boiling point of 36 degrees the lower boiling point allows it to transition to a gas at a much lower temperature allowing it to run a turbine at a lower temperature this system has allowed countries like Germany which lacks any shallow depth geothermal resources to grow their geothermal energy market in recent years where temperatures as low as 100 degrees Celsius being utilized that figure is important because the higher the temperature the deeper we have to drill different areas have different geothermal gradients which is a measure of how quickly temperatures rise as we drill down this map shows a rough estimate of the geothermal gradient across the US with the highest gradients been found in Oregon and Idaho reaching as high as 70 degrees per kilometer this is important as to access this heat in areas where it doesn't naturally come to the surface in an accessible way we need to drill down and the further we need to drill the more expensive it becomes typically we have only used geothermal resources where the natural permeability of the rocks allows a convective heat cycle but a new technology by the name of enhanced geothermal systems or EGS may open the door to geothermal energy in more regions it works like this the first step is to drill an injection well into a formation of hot rocks then engineers inject fluid at pressure to form cracks or enlarge existing ones this increases the area over which heat exchange with the rocks can occur to increase this area even further a non-toxic and degradable material is pumped down to fill these cracks and allow the pressure to form new cracks as we drill further down once we have opened an adequate number of passages for the water to fill we can drill additional holes that can act as an outlet for our hot water as we pump more underground a report by MIT in 2006 found that EGS could provide electricity at a cost as low as three point nine cents per kilowatt-hour roughly equivalent to a coal-fired power plant the united states government esta it's that new geothermal power plants could produce 60 gigawatts of electric power on American soil by 2050 mostly through EGS systems now I know what you are thinking this sounds a lot like the controversial practice of fracking but it doesn't use toxic fracking fluid which can seep into our water cycle it uses water and some safe additives but it's not all plain sailing to make this work we need to create great volumes of fractures and cracks and this can have some disastrous consequences in 2017 drilling at a proposed site for EGS in Pohang south korea is thought to have triggered an earthquake of 5.4 magnitude that injured 135 people a previous incident occurred at an EGS plant in Basel Switzerland in 2006 when drilling may have caused the quake of magnitude 3.4 and several buildings were damaged both projects were cancelled as a result red tape is a huge obstacle for geothermal energy in the United States for example there's less environmental paper work and fewer approvals required for drilling for oil than drilling a geothermal well tax credits for wind and solar power projects are 30 percent while the tax credit for geothermal is only 10 percent on top of all this drilling is very expensive and as we have seen doesn't guarantee a successful geothermal plant you could waste months of your time digging a two kilometre hole in the ground and the productivity of the well could be too small to make the project worthwhile this makes it difficult to find investors willing to bet their money on it it simply makes more sense to invest in solar and wind despite the challenges there's real hope for expanding geothermal energy the industry can build off of recent improvements in drilling technology engineers are developing new kinds of drills for geothermal wells and better techniques for cementing wells drilled into hot rocks the earthquake risk is real but engineers have protocols for monitoring with seismometers to ensure that the seismic risk can be assessed early on in the case of the Bassel accident the EGS facility was located over a seismic fault due to the proximity of hot rocks to the surface once the shaking started fluid injection was halted immediately so far geothermal projects haven't attracted strong political support in the West both they also haven't managed to draw major opposition suggesting that easing permitting rules for the technology may not be so challenging as commercial interest in this clean energy source Rises political support force should follow especially if some smart politician realizes that it can be a rallying call for getting out of work oil drilling texts back to work sometimes the struggle to convert the global energy system to renewables can seem out of reach and feel hopeless but in the case of geothermal energy there's an exciting source of electricity and heat that could power our future and it's right below our feet as I said at the start of the video much of the energy present within the earth is formed as a result of gravitational forces you can learn everything gravity is capable of by taking this course on brilliant this course will take you from the very basics of what gravity is and build your knowledge up to the point of being able to apply Kepler's laws of planetary motion and understand orbital mechanics like using the slingshot effect where spaceships use a planet's gravity to increase their speed it's a fascinating course that I can't recommend enough or you could complete one of brains daily challenges each day brilliant presents you with interesting scientific and mathematical problems to test your brain each daily challenge provides you with the context and framework that you will need to tackle it so that you can learn the concepts by applying them if you like the problem and want to learn more there's a course quiz that explores the same concept in greater detail if you are confused and need more guidance there's a community of thousands of learners discussing the problems and writing solutions daily challenges are thought-provoking challenges that will lead you from curiosity to mastery one day at a time if I have inspired you and you want to educate yourself then go to brilliant org ford slash real engineering and sign up for free and the first 500 people that go to that link we'll get 20% off the annual premium subscription so you can get full access to all their courses as well as the entire daily challenges archive as always thanks for watching and thank you to all my patreon supporters if you'd like to see more from me the links to my Instagram Twitter subreddit and discord server are below\n"