Power from the earth economist.com/video

[SuperTigerNo1]

its very nice idea I wish it comes in action soon!

[teawesome]

This is amazing.

[waldentree]

I wonder if they get any interesting 'rocks' coming up with the hot water.... : P

Lotsa nice stuff down there, possibly.

[gryphonmacthoy]

The idea is simple. Drill into the Earth and dig up the oil, then burn it to boil water to drive turbines to make power. Neat. WHAT COULD GO WRONG???

Seriously, what happens when we extract so much energy from the mantle that we start seeing seismic effects? BP oil spill, all over again. But as an earthquake for the "nearby homes" at best. We'll just push the problems off for a few decades. Making energy isn't the problem. The problem is using energy efficiently.

[hollium]

Why have I not heard of this?! This is amazing, if the traditional energy companies don't have everyone assassinated.

[mmarqqs]

@hollium google "iceland geothermal power" - they've been heating their houses for quite a while with similar systems. Because of the volcanoes & hot springs it's easier to use, but theoretically similar concepts.

[ripporter]

@mmarqqs Yes, but this is different - in Iceland you've got the hot water already flowing out of the ground - in the video you have to pump the water 3 km down and back to the surface. Also the fracturing of the rock make me think of the problems that this has caused with natural gas extraction.