This Breakthrough Energy Source Will Replace Nuclear & Coal!

this video is sponsored by cuts when did and  solar are becoming more popular by the minute and   there's enough energy coming from the Sun and the  wind to power the world there's a problem because   of their intermittency we need vast amounts of  energy storage and we can't just install wind   and solar Farms wherever we want but what if I  told you there was a virtually Limitless clean   reliable and sustainable source of renewable  energy that's available 24 7 all over the world   and that it could provide all the energy we'll  ever need for the next two million years we're   talking about geothermal energy and it's Beneath  Your Feet as we speak so why aren't we building   these power plants that are geothermal based  everywhere I'm Ricky and this is tuba DaVinci   geothermal power is one of the most promising  sources of renewable energy and it's also one   of the most underutilized it works by capturing  heat from the Earth's core and transporting it to   the surface where we can use it for heating or  convert it into electricity in the latter case   geothermal power plants work similarly to thermal  power plants in that they use hot pressurized   steam to power a steam turbine that drives a  generator however instead of burning fossil   fuels to generate hot steam we use heat from  the Earth's core so how much geothermal energy   is there this heat is in part A Remnant from the  Earth's original forming but a significant portion   of it comes from nuclear fission reactions of  decaying radioactive elements present in the   Earth's core because of all that internal energy  the Earth's solid core is at a scorching 10 800   degrees Fahrenheit around 6000 degrees Celsius  almost as hot as the surface of the Sun that   heat is conducted to the outer layers creating  a geothermal temperature gradient that extends   to the Earth's crust where we can tap into this  heat now for for different reasons we're not going   to get into we can't really drill any deeper  than about five and a half miles 10 kilometers   or a tenth of the crust maximum thickness at  that depth the Earth's temperature gradient or   geothermal gradient has an average temperature of  about 450 degrees Fahrenheit so that's not crazy   hot but it is about pizza oven hot and there's  approximately 1.3 times 10 to the 27th joules of   thermal energy available that's 13 followed by 26  zeros to understand just how mind-bogglingly large   that number is consider that the global energy  consumption 2021 was almost 6.1 times 10 to   the 20 joules so geothermal is for all practical  purposes and inexhaustible Resource One we've been   using for thousands of years as a source of heat  and since 1904 to produce electricity when Prince   Pierre genore Conti an Italian businessman and  politician invented the geothermal power plant in   Laredo Tuscany geothermals underlying importance  is that unlike solar and wind it doesn't suffer   from intermittency as I pointed out in previous  videos this intermittency means we'll need massive   amounts of grid energy storage worldwide over  20 000 times we have now to replace fossil fuels   with wind and solar additionally solar is only a  viable option in places that get a lot of sunshine   and wind speeds are only sufficient to power  turbines in certain areas around the world in   contrast geothermal power plants can provide clean  carbon-free energy in a reliable and predictable   way 24 hours a day 365 days a year making one  of the few available options to replace gas and   Diesel turbines for base load power generation  I'm going to try to travel to bring you more   on-site coverage in our future videos which is  why I'm so excited about our sponsor this week   Cuts is the premium clothing brand that brings  excellent style comfort and quality together   with fantastic fit and functionality Cuts is  made for the sport of business with an amazing   line of work Leisure clothes perfect as we get  back out into the world back to work school or   travel I like a blend of t-shirts and polos and  their Fabrics are super soft and with red thread   anti-wrinkle technology you can grab them and  go with minimal maintenance I love that about   them their Pica Pro fabric is stretchy buttery  soft and retains its shape and color better than   any shirt I've ever owned my latest purchase was  they're always on joggers that I can't get enough   of and now that it's fall I got my eye on some  Cuts pullover Crews and classic hoodies ditch the   fast fashion brands their low quality won't last  and they're horrible for the environment and save   time and hassle shopping at malls check out cuts  at cuts.team tupit and use code 2-bit to save 15   today huge thanks to cuts and you for supporting  the show here are a couple more fun facts about   geothermal energy that make it an awesome energy  source number one geothermal power plants have a   very small footprint compared to most other energy  sources geothermal power plants also make better   use of land they only need to take up about 0.1  Acres around 400 square meters per gigawatt hour   per year of installed capacity that's only half a  tennis court per gigawatt hour compared to hydro's   math massive 27 Acres or 109 000 square meters  Kohl's 0.9 Acres solar power is 0.8 and wind   farms at 0.33 acres in fact geothermal is number  two in terms of footprint only to nuclear at 0.95   acres two they can leverage the oil industry's  know-how and Equipment building a geothermal   power plant is very similar to Drilling in oil  or gas production well this is a huge incentive   for big oil companies to invest in this technology  as fossil fuels run out or are eventually phased   out because it would let them repurpose millions  of dollars worth of equipment and infrastructure   while providing a steady source of income to  replace their previous oil revenues what's   more this will also mean that oil field industry  workers and specialized Engineers won't be left   without a job when we replace fossil fuels three  we can use it to repurpose Wastewater California   houses the largest geothermal power complex in  the world the geysers which produces around 900   megawatts of electricity the plant uses Wastewater  from several nearby towns to recharge the wells   and keep them producing energy finally as I said  before geothermal is present below the surface   of our entire planet so we all could in theory  set up a geothermal power plant anywhere we need   one now if you've made it this far in the video  you're probably just as excited about geothermal   as I am and you're probably pretty puzzled why  aren't we building these power plants everywhere   if they're so great to be fair we have built a  good number of geothermal power plants around   the world but these are nowhere near as many  as we need or could build the total installed   geothermal power capacity worldwide reached  only 15.6 gigawatts in 2021 which is roughly 0.6   percent of our current power consumption that's  why I say this is one of the most under utilized   sources of energy if you're thinking there must  be something wrong with geothermal then well   there is but to understand what it is we'll  have to go a bit deeper into how geothermal   energy production actually works in essence we  have geothermal for two main applications as a   direct source of heat or to transform that heat  into electricity when we talk about direct use   we mean direct transferring heat from the Earth to  residential commercial industrial and recreational   buildings through District heating geothermal  heat pumps and other technology I made a video   about geothermal heat pumps and my good friend  Matt Farrell from undecided is also installing   one for his net zero home build I suggest you  check out those videos when you finish watching   this one links in the description geothermal  power plants on the other hand are what we use   to produce electricity from the Earth's heat as  I said in the beginning of this video all those   power plants use steam-powered turbines to power  electricity generators the rest of the system   comes in several variations the most common of  which are dry steam Flash and binary geothermal   power plants the First Technology was the one  originally invented by pirogenori in Italy this   set feeds hot water vapor and steam extracted from  hot underground permeable reservoirs directly into   the turbine the steam is then cooled condensed  and pumped back into the reservoir as liquid   water through an injection well dry steam power  plants are not all that common but some of the   units in the geysers in California do run on  dry steam generators contrary to dry steam flash   geothermal power plants extract high pressure  high temperature liquid water from the production   into a flash tank where it then evaporates this  produces high pressure steam that is then fed   into the turbine finally we have binary cycle  power plants that use one float usually liquid   water to extract heat from the permeable Reservoir  and transfer that heat through a heat exchanger   to a working fluid usually an organic compound  with a much lower boiling point which readily   evaporates producing the steam that powers the  turbine binary plants are great because they can   work at much lower temperatures and therefore at  much shallower depth in dry Steam and Flash power   plants all these Technologies are mature and  have already been deployed at commercial scale   worldwide but as you can probably guess they have  several drawbacks the biggest problem holding us   back from worldwide geothermal deployment is  finding suitable sites for their construction   the basic requirements for suitable sites include  heat fluids Steam and water and most importantly   fractured permeable Rock we can always find  geothermal heat if we drill deep enough if we   can almost always find suitable sources of water  to pump into the reservoir including Wastewater   from nearby towns but permeability of the rock  is a challenge there are only a few accessible   places on Earth where traditional geothermal is  feasible so it would seem that the vast amount   of that energy below our feet is Out Of Reach For  example in the U.S the country's eastern coast is   practically devoid of geothermal potential with  current technology the second big obstacle is   cost the process of exploration drilling into the  ground building a power plant and generating power   is very expensive these costs Drive geothermal  average levelized cost of electricity generation   or lcoe in the range of around 4 cents to 14  cents per kilowatt hour making it more expensive   than onshore wind and utility scale solar last but  definitely not least there's a proven connection   between pumping water through injection Wells  and geothermal sites and load magnitude seismic   activity in the region while these tremors are  typically no stronger than three on the Richter   Scale it's definitely something that scares  the widths out of the local residence and   that generates pushback from local communities so  there you have it we finally uncovered the answer   to why aren't geothermal plants everywhere  with our current technology we can't just   build them anywhere they're crazy expensive  to build they don't represent an attractive   option for investors and it scares locals does  that mean it's the end for geothermal energy   of course not I wouldn't be covering this if it  was there are at least two or three promising new   technologies that could potentially change the  game for geothermal energy one of which we've   already seen hit commercial scale they both aim  to solve geothermal's biggest problem the need   for fractured permeable Rock the first technology  is called enhanced geothermal systems or EGS and   EGS is a geothermal power plant that artificially  creates the much needed porosity within the Earth   to allow water to flow from an injection well  to the production well this is done by pumping   cold water into the hot Solid Rock causing the  rock to crack because of thermal contraction and   water vapor pressure now before you shout out in  the comments talking about how this is just like   fracking know that EGS only pumps water so there's  no risk of groundwater contamination like there is   with natural gas and oil and this also happens at  much lower pressure so there's much lower risk to   the site's geological stability still the slight  risk of geological instability is the trade-off of   having access to geothermal energy anywhere  which is huge there are several EGS plants   already in commercial operation with Francis  Schultz plant and Germany's Landa plant being   the first so at this point if you're unconvinced  about the prospects of EGS well good news there's   another alternative that I think is actually more  appealing and Alberta based technology company   called evor designed the perfect solution for  geothermal their Advanced geothermal system or   you guessed it AGS basically works by connecting  the injection well to the production weld through   a sealed pipe completely eliminating the need  for fractured Rock there's also absolutely no   greenhouse gas emissions no chance of underground  water pollution and we can even use liquids other   than water to extract heat more efficiently  which is not an option for other geothermal   systems the first evor Loop was built in Canada  as a proof of concept and it was built in some of   the toughest rock around and has been operation  since 2019. however this promising solution is   yet to hit commercial scale if it does though it  could finally open the door to an endless supply   of energy like we've never seen before speaking  of which there is an even newer technology right   around the corner that could make geothermal even  more promising by allowing us to drill twice as   deep and access temperatures as high as 1000  degrees Fahrenheit and get this without even   touching the rock but that breakthrough is so  promising that it's earned a video all its own   so stay tuned we'll follow up shortly if we can  get this to work and lower the cost of geothermal   energy down to the levels of current Diesel and  natural gas generators will finally have a real   candidate to replace fossil fuels on a global  scale and that's something worth looking forward   to and I'll leave you with one final thought like  all these topics that we cover there's always   pros and cons and trade-offs and I'm thinking  there's going to be a few comments about this   what happens if we take too much heat out of the  core or the Earth and if the Earth cools that   introduces a whole slew of other problems what it  comes down to though is the scale of what we'd be   looking at if there were bajillions of these  geothermal power plants all around the world   that might be a concern but by and large based  on where they're built and how feasible they   are odds are we don't have to worry about the  Earth cooling anytime soon but I want to hear   your thoughts on this do you think Technologies  like enhanced geothermal or simple or too risky   to pursue if you think Advanced geothermal like  evil solution will be the Holy Grail of Clean safe   sustainable and reliable energy production sound  off in the comments below but before you go check   out this video that we did on geothermal that  I think you'll also enjoy see you next week

Channel: Two Bit da Vinci

Views: 283,967

Keywords: two bit da vinci, geothermal, geothermal energy, geothermal heating and cooling, geothermal power plant, geothermal heat pump, geothermal heating, geothermal drilling, geothermal powerplants, geothermal power, geothermal energy explained, geothermal energy animation, geothermal energy plant, geothermal energy power plant, geothermal energy how it works, how geothermal energy works, geo thermal, geo-thermal, This Breakthrough Energy Source Will Replace Nuclear & Coal!

Id: 4jzXonyL6PM

Length: 13min 45sec (825 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 06 2022