Geothermal Can TRANSFORM Dirty Coal Mines into Clean Energy Hotbeds!

[@goprohellfish0922]

😂😂. I am watching from the Australian Newcastle (in NSW) and realised they showed my exact apartment block at @5:18 when showing footage of the supposed UK Newcastle. Sent the drone a little too far perhaps (incredible range btw!) Quite common to get us mixed up considering both coal cities

[@Sekir80]

That's a pretty easy mistake to make, I believe. You know, looking for stock footage of Newcastle. Anyway, cool story! :D

[@jonathanryan5860]

About time! As a student, about 50 years ago, these questions were being asked, but to no avail. My question now, why isn't it already going Nationwide?

[@Missi0n141]

Quite right! I was thinking about the South Wales ex coal mining. Everywhere with a Mining legacy should be able to capatalise on this with relitive ease? right?

[@waqasahmed939]

I wonder if it's expense? The UK could use tidal power but apparently that's too expensive

[@stephendoherty8291]

Setting up a district heating scheme from scratch is very expensive. Like building a new water plumbing grid for a city. Its not lack of heat, its the transport and grid connection plus access to constant heat supply and a buildings with high insulstion to retain low temp heat keeping the air warm. Zero foresight and then one day fuel for heat skyrockets and its emissions damage your economy and those politicians are in a cosy retired pension knowing nobody will come calling to ask then why

[@discodavid26]

Tidal power is plentiful however it currently has 2 major problems …… 1. Unlike solar and especially wind power ( always 3 blades for anything bigger then small sites) example there is no one definite solution yet for wave power as it is so variable …… this not being one type fits all massively increasing costs and limits mass production and 2. Whilst many different tidal/wave power machines have been made and normally produce good electricity at first all almost break down and /or need replacement very soon due to sea water salt damaging very quickly ageing materials and even pretty salt less tidal water power can be damaging in the long run due to the sheer force off water .…… so currently tidal/wave power at least 20 years behind wind and solar

[@JakobusVdL]

@@waqasahmed939 I know! I'm surprised that the UK government decided nuclear generation was going to be more cost effective than Tidal Power???

[@EcoHouseThailand]

Here in Thailand yesterday it was 40 degrees C in the shade but water coming from my solar well pump from 30m underground was 19 degrees C. A circulating pump and heat exchanger like a split air conditioner blower could help to cool homes here.

[@rogerplumridge5828]

Please mention Southampton where a lot of civic buildings and shopping centres are heated with geothermal

[@Gosportinfo]

Thank you for putting this. I worked in a building near the Railway Station from 1983 and could see the site on the other side. Probably doesn't count as in the South.

[@ProfSimonHolland]

excellent film....i had not considered low temp shallow geothermal.

[@davidhaywood8029]

A very interesting article indeed! For those outside the UK "centigrade" is the old pre-1948 unit of temperature measurement. One centigrade degree is (essentially) the same as one celsius degree in modern SI units.

[@starvictory7079]

Anders Celsius was Swedish and he didn't live after 1948. ;) I know you know just teasing.

[@davidhaywood8029]

@@starvictory7079 Ha! One of my metrology lecturers (many decades ago) was Swedish, and so we learnt quite a bit about the life of Prof Celsius, and the general brilliance of Swedish science & engineering. Unfortunately the only thing I remember is that Celsius's original temperature scale was the other way round, and had water freezing at 100°C and boiling at 0°C (which was a bit awkward, of course).

[@starvictory7079]

​@@davidhaywood8029Yes, indeed. You learned well haha! Greetings from Stockholm.❤

[@SheilaMink-c2t]

Thank you for sharing the good news in your video. I hope you are having a great day.

[@larrycerniglia2793]

MIT spin-off Quaise Energy is drilling 12 miles down using millimeter waves. They hope to do this at retired coal fired power plants. 375 C temperatures.

[@Kwirks]

As an ex miner of 30yrs, working in the darkness in temperatures of 40c plus & with no way of sweating this off as the air was very high in humidity. The methane I know is now captured to generate energy with burning it off & into the grid. The profits from this should have gone into the miners pension schemes in my view. Geothermal would have been a good idea, the pipe work was already in place for compressed air & or pneumatic oils that could have been used from the 7 miles inbye or just the pit bottom areas would have helped all the town & villages heat if needed - for free once the build was paid for.

[@FrankensteinDIYkayak]

they could also be used for compressed air energy storage. with the right thermal transfer the combination of the 2 might be larger than the mere sum of them

[@SimonKey-psimonkey]

Interesting video. I work about 500m from that bore-hole. The whole of that development is also heated and powered by a dedicated power plant - there are pipes carring hot water under the roads. One slight criticism - the aerial video at 5:20 is of Newcastle New South Wales - about 10,000 km from the bore-hole.

[@rehanb637]

Good catch. I’m a Newcastle nsw local and still missed it

[@adsheff]

Well spotted!

[@williamarmstrong7199]

Lol an easy slip up. I drive a taxi and had 3 lads keen to go to a plave of "negotiable afection" in the local town. I kept telling them it was not in my home town. Eventually they gave me his phone showing the "massage parlour" which was in Stafford NSW Coffs Harbour area.. now that would have neen quite a fare!

[@JustNow42]

There are some things to consider. One company is very good at drilling parallel pipes using an adapted fossil fuel technology to optimise the efficiency and an other that is very good at drilling very deep using mm electromagnetic waves. You need to get updated and combine these two

[@darylhoskins919]

I am wondering how much piping would be required and what will it be made of to move all that heated water to every building? How much electricity would also be required to pump it all?

[@kassistwisted]

I wondered if this would become a thing. I'm from the coal mining area of Pennsylvania in the US. I think it's the largest coal seam in the entire world. There are tons of abandoned mines where I grew up. When I heard about geothermal, I remembered that it's always sweaty hot in coal mines, so why not use that for ground source heat pumps? I'm not an engineer, so I didn't know if it was possible. But clearly it is!

[@SD-tj5dh]

I find it quite sad that this technology has been around for decades to dig 2km to heat water and yet we've never done it until now where its only going to be new builds or expensive retrofits that will ever benefit.

[@marinusk67]

After monitoring for 12 years you should know what it does but other countries are doing it for decades so the info was already there.

[@andyjdhurley]

Much as I think geothermal is great, surely it is wrong to refer to it as renewable since it is either coming from radioactive decay or the planets cooling, both of which are finite (if enormous) resources. I would like to see someone 'do the maths' and work out how long it would last if all the worlds energy needs were taken from it. I suspect the answer is so big that we needn't be concerned but I still would not call it renewable since there is nothing renewing it.

[@jno5]

She said Cheshire is another possible area, there are several (big) salt mines in Cheshire, so I wonder if they can be used in a similar way as the Coal mines…..?

[@JJ-zg1hh]

This is truly game changing.

[@marklewis7097]

Great episode, thanks 😊 But is it really renewable? Surely if we extract heat energy from the earth it will eventually cool down? It's going to take a long time of course, so maybe we can think of it as renewable for practical timescales?

[@xandermarjoram8622]

I think I saw a calculation that you could run the entire of humanity's current power requirements on geothermal alone for over 2 million years. Realistically we wouldn't be using that much, with the bulk coming from wind and solar, so it would take a hell of a lot longer that that. By that time, who even knows what we will be doing for power. Dyson spheres, micro-fusion plants, things we can't even imagine, or nothing at all if we make ourselves extinct :)

[@chrissavill8713]

I was thinking the exact same thing! It would definitely speed up the earth cooling down wouldn't it, but with the earth warming up due to our neglect and abuse, would that help negate that cool down?

[@kenhickford6581]

Re: "Surely if we extract heat energy from the earth it will eventually cool down"? Lol! .....Some of the Earths Core heat is 'Residual' from its original creation, but most of it is 'Nuclear', and will continue being replenished for approx 4 Billion Years! Don't take my word for it,......Go look it up,......I did 60 years ago, before the Internet!

[@michaeldepodesta001]

Mark, you are exactly correct. What the presenter did not mention the key metric for the UK: that the upward flux of heat across the UK averages out at 0.038 W/m^2. So to SUSTAINABLY generate 1 kW of heat energy, one must draw heat from about 26,000 m^2 . Or in other words, drawing heat from 1 km x 1 km one could SUSTAINABLY harvest 38 kW. That is not much heat from a very large area. If draw heat out at a faster rate then you simply cool the rock. It's basic physics.

[@marklewis7097]

@@michaeldepodesta001 thanks Michael. I suppose we can say that although the heat inside the earth is a finite resource, practically it would take a lot of extraction over a very long time to affect the temperature significantly. I guess by the same token one could say solar is not truly renewable, but the sun is going to be around for billions of years...

[@TheErmerm999]

For me the exciting thing is the skills, its not a hugely skills intensive industry like solar power, its scales make it less skills demanding than wind or tidal, we could support this industry, with planning laws, small business grants, new build regulations and subsidies. What a legacy to bring to a community the ability to heat our homes easily and cheeply for ever.

[@rogerstarkey5390]

All methods needed, but diversity brings resilience.

[@S0me0ne_S0meWhere_SaysHi]

I would argue that not digging a deep enough bore hole for electrical generation because it's expensive is short sighted. This hurdle can surely be overcome. If Elon Musk believed in such a requirement he would do all he could to make borehole drilling cheaper. Further, millions if not billions is spent on fossil fuel boreholes. Divert that money to drilling holes for geothermal electricity generation.

[@rogerstarkey5390]

I suspect Elon is leaving some if the low hanging fruit for others to "discover". Maybe he's giving them (us?) too much credit?

[@TheHughsie]

Standing on that hole gave me Anxiety! :D

[@florinadrian5174]

You have failed to mention a crucial possibility: not using water but another liquid with a lower boiling point. Just like some smarter fridges and heat pumps, if you use such an alternative liquid even the lukewarm UK mines might be enough for electricity production. Sure, it won't be as simple as pumping the water that already exists in already dug holes: you would have to lay some piping in the mine deeper tunnels and pump in the liquid in the pipes to heat up to boiling and then use the vapors to produce electricity.

[@MRJWWstories]

I think you need to put a fence around that

[@simonalexandercritchley439]

Kia Ora, greetings from the shaky isles of N.Z. We're getting all steamed up about this.We have lots of old mines that could be used also.This should be the way forward. Nuclear energy should only be used safely away from earthquake and tsunami prone areas but has its place provided all safety precautions are taken.

[@simonalexandercritchley439]

Most of our energy needs to come from wind,solar and geothermal. (Deleted bit)

[@rogerstarkey5390]

Nuclear takes too long, costs far to much to construct and produces very expensive energy..... Apart from that it's ok..... Oh.... Wait..... There is no "apart from that"...

[@michaeljames5936]

It was the massive drop in price of wind and solar, that stymied development of geothermal, but it seems to be becoming interesting again. I think that it is a much better solution in the medium term to our energy needs, that weather based renewables.

[@mikemellor759]

Really interesting - hadn’t heard of geothermal for heating before. I wonder how difficult it is to implement district heating into existing individually heated homes or is a better focus on large users eg hospitals, schools, large businesses. I’d love to learn more - love Helen’s scientific understanding of the issues!

[@starvictory7079]

I live in a flat in Sweden heated this way. It works very well. It's not a new thing. I moved into my flat 14 years ago.

[@LaReynedEpee]

In the 90s I stayed at a friend's boyfriend's house in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire. The house was heated by a warm air system that was powered by the local oil industry. I don't know much more about it and can’t find any info on it now. But it was possible then, so I'd imagine it's not so difficult to achieve.

[@jonathanmelhuish4530]

Large users and new build is definitely an easier place to start. Retrofitting to existing houses requires a lot of digging up the roads, so will be relatively expensive. As others have said, it's an idea that has been around for a long time, so I think you should be able to find reasonably accurate cost estimates.

[@LaReynedEpee]

@@jonathanmelhuish4530 They dug up all our roads some years ago to install fibre optic cables. It wasn't an issue.

[@alanmay7929]

Are you actually serious!? Did you went to school!? Those are things we learn in school wtf!!! Geothermal energy has been in use for decades

[@EP-bb1rm]

Hasn't worked in Caerau, South Wales where they tried using mine water for district heating. Trying to find old flooded mine workings is actually quite difficult.

[@thesimbon]

Look at what Altarock is doing: enabling 20+ km digging of boreholes pretty much everywhere on earth.

[@Sarahlenea]

Geothermal energy is one of the least environmentally damaging energy sources. Not only does geothermal energy drastically reduce CO2 emissions compared to gas or oil, but it also has very little environmental impact compared to other energy sources, renewable or not. And it's controllable and not intermittent. Also, unlike air/water heat pumps, it is efficient even in very cold climates. It won't meet all our needs, but it is absolutely necessary that it be developed.

[@SonnyDarvishzadeh]

13:20 is it renewable though? :) we're cooling the core; i.e. releasing its finite energy. In grand view of history, perhaps it'd take millions years of this practice to have any drastic effect.

[@OutdoorLonghair]

I had this idea for the USA where the public lands are peppered with fracking pads and oil rigs. The federal government should kick out the oil companies and install geothermal for publicly available power.

[@rogerstarkey5390]

Don't go expecting logic!

[@830118]

I think it should be used as a temporary gap fill till other sources of renewable energy are developed and for times of power surges. But we need to stop digging and start growing and using resources like hemp and sodium that are easier to grow or are more plentiful.

[@gaston.]

nice scarf!

[@danielmadar9938]

Thank you

[@635574]

Interesting. maybe The Boring Company could find a way to bore vertically faster and cheaper instead of being all about horizontal tunnel.

[@kodak_jack]

Looking for direct heating is not as practical as extracting heat from geothermal to be gathered by heat pumps. The thrust is for everyone to go to all electric houses. By going shallower geothermal and heat pumps, the cost isn't as cost prohibitive. It can be done in the average backyard.

[@biondanishgenomeinstitute8193]

Not the whole story, check Quaise and Eavor for example.

[@virtualmonk2072]

The North could be a true powerhouse, I would love that.

[@markh7288]

Why not dig a pipe down 10km with those new drilling methods it creates a glass lined pipe that you could create a circuit, bringing up super heated water to run a turbine. We would then have 100% renewable electricity no matter what the weather or time of day.

[@adamlytle2615]

This method I believe uses microwaves, so would also solve for the carbon emissions of the diesel powered drilling machines the fellow being interviewed mentioned. You could set up a drilling site near wind and solar generation.

[@karhukivi]

The rock pressure and heat at that depth softens steel pipes and crushes the hole closed in a few months or even less. Impossible with all the technology we have and can predict today.

[@markh7288]

@@karhukivi I think that the new drills leave a glass pipe behind them. First trials are starting in Alberta Canada.

[@karhukivi]

@@markh7288 Maybe shallow drilling, but at 10 km the pressure is enormous. Do you have a reference to this drilling in Alberta?

[@timmurphy5541]

Does this need a district heating network to be of use?

[@amb8274]

In the short to medium term could warm water not be pumped to gas power stations? We would then need to burn less gas to get the water to the required temperature? It would help reduce prices and save Co2

[@danielrose1392]

A typical power plant does not heat water from cold, they run a closed loop and the boiler input is typically well above 90°C. That is where the 160°C from the video comes from, you need water well above 100°C to get a substantial steam pressure. That said, your idea is right, just appiled to the worng field. It can be used for hot water production. At the company I work for we use the ~50°C discharge from our geothermal heat to pre-heat cold tap water to about ~45°C before it is heated to 60°C using natural gas.

[@badsamaritan8223]

Anyone else wondering why no one is capturing the heat from The Centralia coal-seam fire in Pennsylvania?

[@letsfixit1594]

It would have been better to invest in drilling technology rather than wind and solar.

[@geoffreykail9129]

There is one thing you did not discuss and that is the infrastructure to destribute that heat to all the buildings and the cost of installing it.

[@starvictory7079]

It costs to start with and is used for a looong time. This mindset is why the UK has the leakiest homes in Europe. You have to invest long term, not be so conservative and old school in your heads.

[@rogerstarkey5390]

@@starvictory7079 Correct (All points)

[@geoffreykail9129]

@@starvictory7079 It's not old school It's reality. Underground pipping to every house in any town or city is very complicated not to mention retro fitting the house with radiators for the heating. I am not opposed to the idea. I think it is a good idea. But you made it sound so simple, It will take a generation to complete such a project and finance it. So it should have been discussed in the presentation. That's all.

[@starvictory7079]

​@@geoffreykail9129Sweden worked for a 100 years to make our country modern. It can be done. In the 50s many houses were heated with oil in Sweden. Then we had nuclear with direct electricity with radiators that are thin (80s). Many houses in the countryside have used wood boilers but now use wood pellets. In cities and town district heating from the local waste burning plant. I lived in a flat attached to that system. This is still used. Now I live in a flat heated by geothermal, built in 2008.

[@starvictory7079]

​@@rogerstarkey5390I hope I didn't sound too harsh.

[@jammiedodger7040]

We will always need coal but geothermal could be a great thing to work with Coal.

[@fullychargedshow]

That is such a funny comment. We won't always need coal. We barely need it now and if there's one fuel thatb is destined to be dumped in the next 5 years, it's coal.

[@jammiedodger7040]

@@fullychargedshow Coal is cleaner than electric vehicles that is a fact by 2030 the electric vehicle will be dead again like they did the first time. Coal will be used for decades to come if people like it or not and your correct we don’t use as much coal as we did but it’s pushing peoples electric bills up and making people poorer. New coal mine should be opened, decommissioned coal power stations should be bought back into operation and also build a couple new coal power stations making electricity cheaper for ordinary people and Industry. Natural Gas will continue to be used for decades as well to heat peoples homes,cooking and making hydrogen. Wind turbines are a dreadful thing that no one wants they destroy the natural landscape and kills tens of thousands of birds every year and that just one country also cannot just chuck solar panels all around our landscape and current solar panels are not efficient enough to really worth using them. Literally the only viable green energy is geothermal but will not replace Coal or Natural Gas just work alongside them. You literally stand for destroying our natural environment and making the ordinary people poorer.

[@adrianaspalinky1986]

In what way is it renewable? I'm a big fan of using geothermal energy, but do want to know how you feel it is renewable.

[@rubencaixeiro9762]

In theory It doesn't require burning fossil fuels, anything out of that scope is seen as a renewable energy

[@ps.2]

It's renewable in the same sense solar power is renewable. In practical terms there is a limitless supply of heat from below the earth's crust. Sure, billions of years from now, the earth will cool down and geothermal will stop working. But by then, solar power will stop working as well because the sun will have run out of fuel too.

[@faizelebrahim9199]

If you puncture a balloon it will pop, so how is this method sustainable and renewable

[@anonymous13141]

I wonder... What will happened when the earth runs out of heat when we start mining it...

[@ming3.14]

Solar cannot be deemed as renewable but not geothermal. It is simple physics.

[@Watch-0w1]

Do u shut down during summer?

[@thomasgade226]

Most geothermal heating is sized for summer demand so it always runs. That's because the build cost is high, so it must be kept small to reduce cost. Winter demand is then supplied by other means, usually burning stuff. There are trade-offs, so some cases can supply more heat, saving on winter cost. Some boreholes did not work, and customers were stuck with the bill without getting the extra heating.

[@stephendoherty8291]

Why care about water quality when its heat recovery you need.

[@johanartois3692]

What if you run warm water from the coalmine through a sterling engine to produce electricity? I accept that the most efficient thing to do would be pumping the warm water directly to a heat pump and using it for heating houses. But lets imagine if this could work, that in periods where the demand for heating is low (summer for instance), you would at least get some electricity out of it.

[@drewcipher896]

As cool as sterling engines are they're not a good choice for grid power generation. Firstly because of their low power they'd have to he huge which would create some hard but interesting engineering challenges. And secondly they're not very responsive compared to a steam powered turbine or IC engine. Which is a primary need for grid level generation/load balancing.

[@johanartois3692]

@@drewcipher896 I appreciate your explanation, you seem to know a lot more about the subject and you are probably right. But i like asking "what if" questions because I get to learn from smarter people. So imagine then you would just use a whole bunch of smal sterling engines and store the generated power in batteries until it's needed? Similar to storing the excess power of my solar panels in a home battery for when the sun goes down.

[@thecorbies]

As Werner Rietveld asks below, is it REALLY renewable? This may be too simplistic, but MY understanding of renewable is for example, sunlight: It will be there to a greater or lesser extent tomorrow and nothing has been overtly consumed. Wind: It wind likely be there again tomorrow with nothing overtly consumed. Wave: it will be there again in a number of hours, and with nothing overtly consumed. But, surely, unless the Earth's core is self heating, and cooling (over time) will cause the planet to shrink and cause more tectonic plate activity - earthquakes, and maybe more??? Of course I realise that it might take 000's of years, but in principle should we do it for a short term 'convenience'?

[@James_Ryan]

If the heat isn't re-newed, is it re-newable? ;)

[@robertszynal4745]

She said 80% of the heat was from radioactive breakdown, so it's technically just a massive nuclear power plant.

[@punkdigerati]

Geothermal isn't renewable, it's just natural nuclear.

[@701983]

So solar isn't renewable too? Just natural nuclear? Also hydro, wind, biomass,... In my view, it doesn't make much sense to remove the term "renewable" by too narrow definition.

[@tobiasreichelt888]

Only works if the drillers are redesigned

[@thisolman]

Anyone see the mouse in the background? Blurry behind the man's head on his left.

[@MichaelPickles]

Great how do normal people connect this to their house? You can't....

[@marcsimmonds5483]

Ffs...you can heat your house from underground conduits in your garden if you have the space.

[@johnburns4017]

​@@marcsimmonds5483 Or drill a deep enough vertical bore hole.

[@rollthetape88]

go to denmark....

[@starvictory7079]

​@@rollthetape88or Sweden

[@IO_gao]

Geothermal isn't unlimited relative to the existence humankind will exist (just like a human it gets older and will die off...only over a way longer period of time than an individual). Therefore only wind-, water turbines and photovoltaics are the real deal - everything else is shit that leads to ugly consequences.

[@Teapode]

9:58 1kW to get 3kW, COP 4 😐 Air source heat pumps has a SeasonalCOP of 4,6 in UK and does not require 2km deep hole. Like it makes sense in realy cold months, when air source heat pumps has COP of 2,5, but the rest of the time when its warm outside in summer air source heat pumps has a COP of 6. But geothermal would have only 4 constantly though whole year.

[@johnburns4017]

But when you really need the heat, in winter, the COP is 2.5, that is more expensive than heating with natural gas. Seasonal COP is misleading. It is the COP when you need heat the most that matters.

[@Teapode]

@@johnburns4017 Agree, it is. But as a first year owner of heat pump, I was surprised how few freezing days were in this year. So overall seasonal COP worked for me. Another thing is, I had gas heaters and their efficiency should be 70%, but now after heating season my savings with heat pump are so high, and it is more likely that gas heaters had an efficiency of 50-60% realistically. As for now my savings are around 400 Euro. Total cost of Air to air heat pump cost was 2500 euro. But it was a warm winter, so I`ll watch it next year.

[@Teapode]

To put the numbers, we had a 7,5 MW of gas used last year. This year we used around 2,5 MW of gas ( I didnt measure it this month ) and around 0,5MW more of elctricity. In calculation: 60% gas heater= 5*0,6=3MW of electricity, COP 4,1 for my heat pump = 3/4,1 = 0,73MW we should used. But we used 0,5MW. But as I said, it was a warm winter and we also limited our ventilation, and temperature to 19C which saved energy.

[@johnburns4017]

@@Teapode Condensing gas boilers are 90% plus efficient. Using boilers that modulate the burner down low - 3kW and less - using appropriate OpenTherm types of controls the efficiencies are quite high indeed, with improved comfort levels. Modern boilers are all hydrogen compatible. Parts of Redcar and Ellesmere Port near Liverpool, in England, are having their gas networks and appliances converted to hydrogen as a trial. All free to the users.

[@fredjacobs26]

Pfft. Not impressed. Real geothermal energy is from 20+ km deep holes which can yield >700C heat. Gyrotron drilling gets you there, and with plasma-glassed liners, promises to offer reliable safe industrial-scale heat anywhere on any continental plate (not just a local hotspot). See for example the work by Quaise Energy.

[@fullychargedshow]

Pffft. Yes, we are very very aware of Quaise energy, their Gyrotron drilling technology and the numerous other aspects you stated and we await the outcome of Quaise energy's first test drilling with great interest. What they are attempting "COULD' unlock untold amounts of geothermal energy and that is fantastic. This is, admittedly on a much smaller, much less ambitious scale, requires zero drilling, zero untried technology and can be done right now, cheaply and quickly. So this really isn't a 'Pffft' topic.

[@GarretKrampe]

As presenters you must realise that people don't have all day to listen to waffle . So get to the facts and dump the fluff.

[@John15293]

geOthermal. not geAthermal... annoying

[@anthonyworley2891]

So we have something that needs everyone has locally and that needs support from the local community. Ok so that will need support from our councils and that is the problem because their is no votes in it for them.

[@edwodehouse9528]

Why does he drop his 'Gs', when he has a posh accent?

[@Cloxxki]

Heating up the actual Earth is okay but dare you not emit don't plant food!

[@johnmightymole2284]

Taking heat from inside the earth adds to global warming.

[@TheEclecticDyslexic]

100-200 years from now, we are going to realize that the earth needed to be hot on the interior, and us venting it to the surface screwed something important up. /shrug

[@xandermarjoram8622]

It would take hundreds of thousands or millions of years for us to cool the crust noticeably. You're correct though in the sense that this still adds heat to the atmosphere, but that's still better than pumping it full of CO2. The majority of energy will still be solar and wind which don't have the same effect.

[@cyborglion4179]

The amount of heat down there is so much that getting it to a point where it would fuck something up would take a ridiculous amount of time. Also it's slowly cooling anyway, human activity probably barely changes the cooling rate in the grand scheme of things.

[@Kingstallington]

@@cyborglion4179 its that kinda thinking that got us here in the first place, "It don't affect us right now so what the problem...."

[@cyborglion4179]

@@Kingstallington but in terms of just how small an amount of extra heat is being pumped out of the earth. It's barely a change. Now if the amount of heat flow out of the earth started to be significantly more then some worry would make sense. But it's barely more. The shear scale of the amount of heat in the earth is incomprehensible

[@Kingstallington]

@@cyborglion4179 44 terawatts is not "incomprehensible"

[@WILLIAM1690WALES]

This sounds good in theory, but not practical. The future will be nuclear, particularly with the progress Rolls-Royce have made with small modular reactors., in 20 to 30 years time, we may have quite literally that many reactors in Great Britain

[@Stuart.A]

I wonder how the price per kilowatt compares.Nuclear plants are notoriously expensive to run,maintain-and then there’s decommissioning and waste disposal.

[@nixx5490]

@@Stuart.A they are in fact way cheaper than renewables at least in France, the thing is that to “prove” the opposite lobbyist tend to just talk about LCOE and “forget” to talk about an entire electric system In France RTE published a study about the entire electric system, ans cheapest scenarios where the one with most nuclear Maybe it’s different in other country

[@TheErmerm999]

Our biggest issue with nuclear in the UK is our horrendous skills shortage, there's a reason the french and the Chinese are building our power stations. Geothermal could be a good low skill tech to help support local communities heat their homes.

[@TheErmerm999]

@@nixx5490 yeah the weakness of renewables is the lack of consistency, which is what is impacting that study so much, there is so much money in energy storage right now it wont be long until that last strength of nuclear is beaten, geothermal doesn't have the same consistency issue as other renewables, it could help take the pressure off. lets just build more of everything.

[@gasdive]

​@@nixx5490 the reason French nuclear is cheap is that the French government built them and won't say what that cost. Best guess is that it cost about the same as the Apollo program. Saying it's cheap is like saying going to the moon is cheap because Armstrong could afford to go on just an airforce pay.

[@chrislaunders8283]

I worked 45 years in the coal mines, where we were working the ambient temperature was 42c and always said they should have installed high pressure pipes for geothermal heating when they filled the pits in.

[@colinmacdonald5732]

It's a bit like heat pumps though, using high quality power (electricity) to produce low quality (lukewarm water).

[@SWR112]

That would be too smart. We needed to be further ahead in renewables and storage and we wouldn’t be getting ripped off for Gas. Over reliance on at the time cheap Gas imports made us open to what we have seen. We need to start being smart on energy, we should have the brain power we have some of the most prestigious universities in the world.

[@williamarmstrong7199]

​​you are way out of date with your data. It is entirly posible now to heat a house ecconomically even in -15 degree tempratures from air based heat pumps, ground sourced are more efficent. Go and look at EVman's vieos on the subject. He has all the data and lives in North Yorkshire in a very cold area. On the Coldest of days he had more than enough heat and still got 3.5 KW of heat into his house from every 1 KWh power put in.

[@iancormie9916]

It is a matter of pumping cost (energy consumed) plus development cost and maintenance vs energy recovered.

[@JT-zl8yp]

​@@colinmacdonald5732need to do some calculations on hoe much hot water can be extracted for each kwh of electricity

[@Maker_of_Things]

I love that this is becoming a thing. 20 years ago, while studying at The Centre For Alternative Technology, I proposed extracting the heat from coal mines for community heating schemes as the holes are already there, and we had been cooling them to allow mining to take place. I was told it wasn't worth it as the heat was too low grade. I didn't understand how it could have been dismissed so easily, but I guess I was just ahead of my time. About 280 metres under my house is a coal mine. I wonder if anyone would notice if I did a bit of digging? 🤔😄

[@theairstig9164]

The local government would. You’d get fined for mining without a permit. Now if you were drilling a hole that would be a different story. Plus you might hit groundwater above the mine and flood it. That would definitely get the attention of the people in the mine

[@jonathanmelhuish4530]

Quick, buy the coal mine before anybody realises it's actually useful 😊

[@alanmay7929]

It's not becoming a thing! It has been becoming a thing for years

[@waqasahmed939]

@@theairstig9164 People wouldn't be "in the mine" in the UK :)

[@EP-bb1rm]

Hasn't worked in Caerau. Quite hard finding old, flooded mine workings.

[@PaperCoffeeTable]

This type of miniature geothermal heating is used by most regular large villas in Sweden, they drill a hole about 200 meters deep, put a hose in there which is filled with a liquid which is pumped around by a heat pump that extracts the heat from the liquid once it returns from the hole to the surface, then pushes the liquid back through the hole where it gets heated up again. The only rules are the hole should be at least 4 meters from a house wall and 20 meters from your neighbors hole. The total cost for drilling and installation of this system is about 20% more than a regular water/air heatpump but the energy effecivesness is also about 20% higher.

[@johnburns4017]

The water coming out of the ground may be hot enough to run low temperature underfloor heating. The water may not be hot enough for domestic hot water, but a small cheap heat pump (size of a fridge) just for domestic hot water, raising the temperature to 60C is all that is needed. Or use a common, cheap, resistance immersion heater. Expensive to run but if you are only raising the domestic hot water temperature 15 to 20 degrees for only domestic hot water there will be just _cheapish_ electricity costs. The underfloor heating just needs a plate heat exchanger between the ground water and the heating water, and a few pumps. One pump to bring up the ground water and send it back, and one to circulate water around the underfloor heating. The underfloor heating can be on 24/7.

[@RandomActsOfMadness]

Thats not geothermal heating, thats geothermal source heat pumping. To scale things up, such as to provide for central heating it makes for sense to dig somewhat deeper to start with.

[@williamarmstrong7199]

​@@johnburns4017sorry but you are way out of date with your information and just wrong in some of it. Go and watch EVman's videos on his air source heat pump. That gave him loads of heating and hot water even in -15 degree tempratures in North Yorkshire! Ground sourced heat pumps (what they are talking about here are far more efficent than Air sourced. But at -15 degrees C EV man was getting 3.5 KW of heat for every 1KW of electricity he put in. So it works perfectly.. he is using normal wet radiators to heat his house also. So the cost of instalation was minimal.

[@johnburns4017]

​@@williamarmstrong7199 Most air sourced heat pumps fitted in _existing_ homes are inefficient and not worth it. A lot of work has to be on insulation and air tightness, which may be a great inconvenience and cost. They are worth it in new air-sealed and highly insulated houses. There are many case where expensive heat pumps are fitted in existing homes with energy bills rising like a kite. Also, read again what I was writing which you seemed not to understand. It was about using naturally heated low grade hot water extracted from the ground, being a suitable temperature to run underfloor heating with. Then use a small heat pump to raise the temperature to 60C for DHW storage purposes. Or if the heat pump is too expensive to buy, use a cheap resistance immersion heater to raise the temperature, which may be worth it, as it may not be raising the temperature too much, so little electricity used. Or, have a 11kW *_instant_* electric water heater, set to say 52C, it will only be raising the water a few degrees. It could give drencher shower performance. Also having a Quooker type of instant boiling water kitchen tap would do the same.

[@rudiosbelgio3253]

@@johnburns4017 I use an air to air HP in a badly insulated house... i still save a lot of money doing so. It is possible, but you need a A+++ HP, should not cost that much. My new a/a HP was less costly than traditional gas heating. 1kW in and 5kW out... do the math. But... invest in insulation first.

[@brianmollan]

I would suggest that this episode should also have covered what is already in existence and working in some European countries to very good effect.

[@starvictory7079]

No, this is the UK. They want to reinvent the wheel and/or argue that it doesn't work. Then they will proudly boast to one another about how they just put another jumper on and that in their childhoods there was ice on the water in the bathroom sink they filled up the night before. Yes, I have heard it myself many times in the UK.

[@adsheff]

Also - if it is so effective and in use elsewhere, why aren't we doing this everywhere?

[@beawatton]

We've had a geothermal plant in Southampton that's been running since the '80s - shame it wasn't featured in this video

[@ecoworrier]

11:04 fracking is done to release gas trapped in a not very permeable rock luke a shale (that's why it's trapped). For geothermal you want to use a rock formation that is already permeable (or a permeable structure like an old mine) to use that permeability for water to move through and gather the ground heat as it moves. So much different use case and much lower risk I would say.

[@ash_pro_2000]

I wish fracking technology advanced enough that my nan stopped complaining about her trapped gas

[@ecoworrier]

@@ash_pro_2000 She must have some kind of plug up there. She should lubricate the plug and remove it from time to time.

[@waqasahmed939]

@@ash_pro_2000 Lol. Trapped gas hurts though More realistically, I'm not too keen on fracking largely due to the Earthquake potential

[@romanrzechowicz2179]

Thank you for putting this together, nice report! Thank you also for the nice shot of my home town Newcastle Australia at 5:17 (oops 😅) PS I also drive to work each day from precisely the middle left of that shot through Gateshead.

[@ramblerandy2397]

I should point out that Southampton city, on the UK south coast, has been exploiting geothermal energy "hot rocks" since the early 1980s. It serves the local Civic Centre and surrounding area. Fully Charged might find it worth enquiring of an old established working site and how it has benefited the city.

[@AnnoyingRash]

Geothermal renewable? Clean sure. Practily infinte ok. But not renewable.

[@wernerrietveld]

Is it really renewable, or just very abundant? Regardless, it seems like a very promising way to heat our buildings. I would like to see how economical this solution is and can be.

[@jasongooden917]

It's renewable.. the Sun recharges the Earth's energy all the time.

[@lydhavet-music]

That's a truly fundamental rabbit hole question there. Nothing is truly renewable, just some things are more abundant than others, given the timeframe specified.

[@TheErmerm999]

once the core of the earth cools... we don't need to worry about it. because we will be long gone

[@Astrophysikus]

Exactly! In other words, if you extract thermal energy from a site for say 100 years, will you observe any significant cooling and hence degradation in performance? Ultimately, both the heat left over from Earth's formation as well as that from slow nuclear decay is finite. So is the sun's energy of course, but the lifespan of the sun is so large that it is infinite for all intents and purposes, at least as far as humanity is concerned.

[@jimdunleavypiano]

@@Astrophysikus I'm thinking of the size of the entire earth vs a 2km hole drilled in the surface. I'm pretty sure the heat works its way out anyway, so we're just using it on its way.

[@grotline]

Yeah and for some reason the powers that be keep shying away from it, why? Because it’s free and they can’t charge you for it.😊

[@izzo2271]

Nothing is free, they'd definitely charge you for it because someone has to fund the people and facilities working to obtain that energy from the geothermal and transform it into electricity. What I can imagine is that lobbying is putting up a barrier because it would be harder to justify the prices they currently charge with fossil fuel energy, it might seem like the prices would be comparable now but with an industry around it geothermal would get so cheap from the developing industry and competition that they would end up making less money

[@danielrose1392]

Geothermal is no free energy. It allows you to use 1kwh of electrical energy to produce typically about 4kwh of heat, but you still have to get that 1kwh of energy.

[@julianshepherd2038]

You can meter heat. I know in Scotland it is a matter of working out how much heat you can take and the best kit to do it.

[@ash_pro_2000]

It's as free as wind or solar energy. You'd still need to pay for the technology and people to extract that free resource to bring it to a usable form like domestic electricity.

[@alanmay7929]

Lol!!!!! Are you serious!!! What can it actually really do!!! Crude oil alone itself is used to do literally millions of things think about that!!!!!

[@BobHannent]

I'd also like to acknowledge that Kent also had substantial coal mines and coal mining communities that suffered after the closure of the mines. This sounds interesting for those communities as well, especially as those mines were often flooded regularly because they were under chalk deposits.

[@adsheff]

It's fascinating - but they've had that test hole in Newcastle for 12 years now - surely there should have been more progress by now? We learned about geothermal energy back in the 90s - what is taking so long? I wish Fully Charged would also interview people in power on these episodes - get the MP in charge of energy on and ask them what is going on. I love these kind of episodes but it's so frustrating watching so many episodes about how amazing every could be, but never seems to come to fruition.

[@alaneasthope2357]

There's 91 billion years worth of heat down there. Like solar, once you've paid for the initial set up, the energy you get is free. Governments should be investing in this instead of the hydrogen "white elephant" of the fossil fuel industry.

[@johnburns4017]

Japan is investing in hydrogen as it is the only alternative to fuel heavy industry. They are producing hydrogen from nitrogen cooled nuclear reactors.

[@PCRoss2469]

Excellent work (again) from Dr Czerski. Love it. Surely to reduce induced seismicity you could sink pipes to be heated rather than pumping the water in raw ?

[@nibiruresearch]

Hopeful news. Start drilling and scale up!

[@bettyswallocks6411]

In the UK, there’s an abundance, right now, of very hot air in Westminster. More than most can handle, actually.

[@TheGramophoneGirl]

1:40 those figures are VERY interesting!

[@mohebalikalani2115]

thank you, economy will rise by using jet plasma machine and compressed gas(Air) in isolated structure in water pool with more than 80 % efficiency , it transfers compressed gas(hot air) temperature from engine to water for steam generator in first level, New energy from sea will change world soon, there are other source of energy that with international cooperation in coastline we can reduce effect of global warming, sea is huge source of energy, further more we can prevent these phenomena like cyclone and flood and wildfire by using this hot seasonal atmospheric condition, recent years in summer, geothermal energy happens in surface of coastline, there are many countries in coastline with seasonal hot weather and water condition in comparison with middle Ocean, its more than 12 degrees , in sum-up, by using this energy not only is economical but also reduce global warming in countries like Japan, China, India, Mediterranean countries, Iran, Brazil, Mexico, Us, Canada, (Africa and Arabian countries....) . I invented new method base on air pressure rules and quantum physics ionization sea water minerals in strong dynamic magnet bases on paramagnetic and diamagnetic particles and electrical microwave wave field and electric chemical reactions (K+, Mg++, Na+, H+, H++, li+, H2, ...) +( O2, N2, ...) into up level by vacuum pump from storage into combustion chambers as major part of fuel (more than 50%) for producing electricity and fresh water and fertilizer. this machine produces 150Megwatt-hour/hour and 20000M3/DAY fresh water and fertilizer. 7 methods zero pollution for reducing global warming I mentioned in my profile. (G20 countries can solve these phenomena).

[@a-aron2276]

You could also invert the process to cool homes. We could turn every single building into a VRF AC system. But I also think we need to federalise energy, our investment in renewables is just going into the pockets of the energy companies. They take our tax money and then charge us a premium and then report record profits, electricity has never been more expensive, this is absolutely not acceptable.

[@neilhenry7678]

...strange, not even a mention of Southampton's Geothermal Plant!

[@johnburns4017]

That is biggish! They pump up water from the Wessex Basin aquifer below from a depth of 1,800 m which is at a temperature of 76C. It produces 2 MW of geothermal power, supplemented with biomass power.

[@t5782-j4o]

An Economic analysis would be nice to see in a follow up video. Geothermal is a great idea, but is it a good financial idea (or a financial disaster for all involved)? How long will it take to recoup the initial costs? What number of residents in an area would need to be connected to a District Heating system to make it break even, and what is the maximum numbers of residents would the system support (and what would their heating bills be then)? An analysis of some completed projects in areas with similar Geothermal Coefficients would be an interesting future video.

[@daveturnbull7221]

There was a scheme done in Fife several years ago where they tapped into an old coal mine. Can't remember the details but I believe it was a small block of flats for pensioners. It was renovated completely with underfloor heating, double (triple?) glazing, walls heavily insulated and a normal heating system as a backup. The residents were over the moon about their almost non-existant heating bills.

[@philbarker7477]

Thank you Ryan for making the key point 5hat was studiously ignored! Also as others have pointed out - it’s hardly new.But it has remained small due to the economics.The cost of retro fitting 10,000 houses with a new warm water plumbing system would be enormous! A good U.K. example of how it can be done from scratch is I believe an interesting one. When they were building the Battersea power station in the 30’s.They took the waste hot water from the turbines and pumped them through two huge pipes under the Thames to a brand new huge housing project of the day Dolphin Square. I believe it worked very well for a decade or two. But the hot water was totally free and the housing project had the concept built in from the start. The only viable geothermal is Cornwall full stop.

[@davidelliott5843]

Cranbrook, a new development near Exeter, has a district heating system. It’s powered by heat from a gas fired power plant nearby. The costs of underground piping is considerable. The heat available is not always adequate so they also have commercial scale heating boilers to raise the water temperature as as necessary

[@derrickstableford8152]

There are many city’s installing district energy schemes, world wide.

[@tombh74]

One challenge, is the initial high cost of drilling and the risk the well will fail or not yield sufficient energy.

[@roxxycrystals]

May all beings be healthy, be happy, be well and be free. Including ourselves.

[@PhilipWong55]

The Earth's magnetic field is generated by the geodynamo process in the outer core, driven by the combination of heat sources and the Earth's rotation. This magnetic field forms a protective shield, the magnetosphere, which plays a key role in preventing the stripping away of the Earth's atmosphere by the solar wind. We should be very careful doing anything that could cause changes in the earth's outer core, crust or accelerate the transfer of heat from the core to the surface.

[@anthonynorris7736]

That’s a lie! The Cornwall project was SHUTDOWN BECAUSE OF EARTHQUAKES

[@Alan_Watkin]

but what i'll say here is if or once this is scaled to every home business world wide where its viable how long before the earths core is cooling far faster than before because that is what would happen opening afew holes here and there wouldn't hurt but if heat is extracted on scale it will start happening

[@karhukivi]

Perhaps in a few tens of billions of years, so don't lose any sleep over it! The heat is generated in the interior of the earth and these projects are only removing a tiny amount of what will end up radiated into space anyway. Look at a volcano and think about how much heat that is ejecting into the atmosphere.

[@dietmarventzke5327]

The answer to all these boring problems is of course ….underground windmills. 1. We don’t clutter up the country side , 2. It looks much nicer when these horrible windmills are put ….underground.

[@Jkauppa]

money/law/gov/people/kings wastes all you think you do

[@SWR112]

As with everything it has to make commercial sense to invest in the tech. Without businesses backing it then it’s a dead duck. Imagine projects being done just for the good of the country and not for profit. 🤔 Let’s face it certain companies don’t want cheap plentiful electricity. More power if you forgive the pun to these people working to bring cheaper cleaner energy to our homes and businesses and even transport. We never seen to learn from abroad like it’s a bad thing to do if you copy Success.

[@robinwhitebeam3955]

Fascinating to hear about the technology in Newcastle ,a wonderful presentation and interview, thank you. I was going to install a ground source heat pump at home but, after research, realised that photovoltaic panels generating electricity is the first thing. I am relocating the electricity boxes and batteries to a more convenient location at the same time. Some day an electric car!