Geothermal Can TRANSFORM Dirty Coal Mines into Clean Energy Hotbeds!

[@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.

[@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​​you are way out of date with your data.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.

[@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

[@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.

[@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???

[@beawatton]

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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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?

[@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.

[@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

[@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!

[@bettyswallocks6411]

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

[@SimonHollandfilms]

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

[@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 ?

[@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.

[@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.

[@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

[@Dudleymiddleton]

Ney fog on the tyne th' dee, lass! Great idea -and making use of old coal mines - now they are literally heat mines! Thank you for sharing!

[@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.

[@Dave5843-d9m]

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.

[@robertszynal4745]

Coal and gas power plants work by raising the temperature of water from cold to very hot. If they ran their input water through a bore hole they could bring it up half of the way then only need to burn half the fuel to take it the rest of the way. As a short-term step, this would improve our existing energy infrastructure (effectively making it hybrid) and reduce costs.

[@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.

[@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

[@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.❤

[@dougzirkle5951]

A thoroughly well done episode on a subject I have a keen interest in.

[@A_Litre_of_Farva]

Even here in Canada in the winter, if you go just 8 feet down, it’s above zero and water will never freeze, even when it’s -40° outside.

[@SheilaMink-c2t]

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

[@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.

[@JJ-zg1hh]

This is truly game changing.

[@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.

[@KN-hg3mw]

There is a huge potential in geothermal energy in EU. Here in Poland, we started drilling 7km hole in Szaflary city expecting 180 degrees hot water so we could produce electricity as well.

[@waqasahmed939]

Honestly, even solar has a lot of potential here I've wanted solar panels since a kid, and also realistically, as someone who struggles with dry eyes, and therefore require sunglasses indoors when the sun is bright, I'm painfully aware of exactly how bright the UK actually is Ie: it's enough for me to need sunglasses almost all year round

[@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!

[@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?

[@Arational]

In Springhill Nova Scotia, geothermal from closed coal mines has been used for decades.

[@adamwalker1504]

Makes sense, I guess it will all come down to the cost/KWh for customers wanting to use it. Really could make a difference in winter when there is most DHW demand

[@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.

[@williamarmstrong7199]

Living in the midlands we used to have 100's of coal pits as evidensed by subsidence problems still on going decades after the mines have closed. Most of the old pits are now covered in housing estates. So it would be a relativly simple engineering task to set up local heating loops and supply the houses from that source. It could also help the old housing stock that make up many of our lovely old vilages and town centers that can never be economically brought upto modern standards of insulation.. even if that were desirable. Air tight houses as proposed these days have serious potentual problems for health and certianly are highly undesirable for any lady going through the "change" .

[@johnburns4017]

_" Air tight houses as proposed these days have serious potentual problems for health "_ Not if you ventilate right, like using heat recovery ventilation.

[@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…..?

[@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.

[@roxxycrystals]

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

[@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!

[@JonathanSwiftUK]

We should harness it if it's practical. We don't have the infrastructure to distribute this heat to houses. Even if we did you all know radiators in your house which are furthest from the boiler get less heat. But, it's energy, renewable, it could be very cost-effective (cheap), definitely good to have diverse sources. Maybe solar energy could be used to heat this water to the point where it can be used to drive a turbine.

[@johnburns4017]

We build the infrastructure needed. Heating can be low temperature underfloor heating. Radiators furthest from boilers get enough heat if the system is designed and fitted properly.

[@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?

[@MeStevely]

Bring it on!!

[@martinwilkinson3959]

More than 30 years ago a research project investigating geothermal energy was undertaken in Cornwall. This was for space heating as far as I remember. Unfortunately it was found to be uneconomic. Heat needs to be recovered in some way, and this means a heating medium needs to be circulated through the ground. The circuit needs to be sufficiently permeable to create a reasonable flow. Without good flow insufficient heat will be transported from the rocks to the recovery unit extracting the heat. Remember, you are dealing with relatively small temperature gradients In order to create a high enough flow to extract a worthwhile amount of heat the flow has to be quite high. These high temperature radioactive rocks are, more often than not, types of granite:. a rock not known for its porosity. Thus fissures in the rock will be needed to create a circuit that has a sufficiently low resistance . Anyone for fracking ?

[@rollthetape88]

sand storage tanks for the captured heat

[@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.

[@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...

[@philspencelayh5464]

Great video I live not far from this where we have a few similar projects going on nice to see the background to them. Much more interesting than the endless videos about electric cars that are still not really practical and most people can't afford anyway.

[@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.

[@Madonsteamrailways]

It’s wonderful to hear about renewable energy!! I wonder how green this is!!

[@guringai]

Has that guy at the end said - It's very clean.

[@rogerstarkey5390]

Didn't he say "7% footprint for the drilling/ infrastructure, then essentially..... Zero"? . You must realise that if there's a "footprint" for a green project, any initial deficit only matches the penalty of a "dirty" project during it's setup period. After that it's simply no contest.... A "No brainer"

[@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.

[@teresamartini10]

By doing that, does it mean that we will be cooling the earth faster by allowing an escape of heat to use to power our goodies? And then what happens with the earth's climate?

[@richardhintonracing]

It is a good point .

[@patrickdegenaar9495]

I beg to differ on the issue of depth. Deep frackers go down as far as 5km. As such the same technology can be used for deep geothermal. Shallow geothermal is also positive, but we need to be careful about subsidence damage to buildings.

[@TheGramophoneGirl]

1:40 those figures are VERY interesting!

[@PenneyThoughts]

This is the way.

[@AnnoyingRash]

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

[@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"...

[@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.

[@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.

[@mhoobag1]

Wish they would get on with it. I Live next to this Newcastle Uni as it was built on the old brewery site. We could do with this cheaper source of energy for our homes.

[@paulmurden7621]

interesting and also ace that we can use some of the existing infastructure too.

[@rogerstarkey5390]

He's an idea. Use heat to run a Stirling engine. Use that to either lift a weight up a mineshaft or pump water to the surface. When required, either drop the water back down in tanks, essentially a "gravity battery" driving a pulley system to generate electrical energy, or drive a turbine at the bottom of the shaft. .

[@bitsnpisces3623]

Kenya is huge on Geothermal about 70% of total electricity in the country is from Geothermal

[@cyborglion4179]

We need this in western PA. Perfect spot for it I'd think

[@TheErmerm999]

There has been pushing for this technology in the PA statehouse, great way to support upskilling out of work coal miners. perfect work for tough folk skilled with heavy machinery, please write to your regs, support the miners. Make PA the nations leader

[@rcjbvermilion]

Tap into the underground fire in Centralia. Plenty of heat there, just under the surface!

[@cyborglion4179]

@@rcjbvermilion I've had a sci-fi world concept centered around that for a bit

[@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

[@MickyELee]

I read up on geothermal a few decades ago re some spot in Oregon, USA. I recall there was a big problem with the plumbing being corroded badly by the hot water. I presume you are talking about a drier process.

[@tombh74]

I think what you are refering to, are deep wells going for supercritical water. They are very challenging to utilise, but have a lot of energy. What is talked about here are wells extracting water much lower than boiling point, and where corosion is manageble.

[@starvictory7079]

It works here in Sweden. I live in a flat heated by geo thermal.

[@TheHughsie]

Standing on that hole gave me Anxiety! :D

[@johnranford1]

Geothermal releases energy from the earth into the atmosphere. So it is not strictly a renewable like wind or solar. Ground source heat pumps are more renewable as they use heat from the sun on the ground near the surface.

[@lafamillecarrington]

Is it really renewable? Whilst deep geothermal boreholes would probably take insignificant amounts of energy, that isn't the case with large-scale ground source heat pumps. Still, far better than coal, oil or gas.

[@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!

[@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.

[@thesimbon]

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

[@jbmaru]

That's a brilliant idea!

[@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.

[@Roamor1]

Thank you.

[@nibiruresearch]

Hopeful news. Start drilling and scale up!

[@danielmadar9938]

Thank you

[@mikemorton954]

Geothermal Geordies! Love it❤

[@Thegeordiemonkey]

Its why the lasses divvent wear coats up here in the winter because the heat rises from the potholes and travels up their tights to keep their bums warm.

[@virtualmonk2072]

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

[@635574]

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

[@benjaminlamey3591]

The big question is still, will the earth that gets cooled down by geothermal usage rewarm quickly enough to carry on with the operations ? or will it be available only in winter to let it heat up again during summer ? heat conduction in rock is pretty slow Apparently the recharging in water is already assessed. Low temperature geothermal is quite an uncomon adventure for now. It is good that it gets studied further.

[@jimthain8777]

Let's put it this way, the Earth very deep is extremely HOT. That heat diffuses upwards. So even if you take heat out, there's more ready to replace it. That's going to last millions of years.

[@benjaminlamey3591]

@@jimthain8777 you do not get it. the heat diffuses, but at which speed ? if you take out the heat quicker than it gets replenished by earth, then it gets colder locally. thus the problem of the speed of heat diffusion in the rock being used. like you have a million liter tank but only a 5 mm pipe to get the water out ...

[@rogerstarkey5390]

@@benjaminlamey3591 It's a miniscule amount

[@JakobusVdL]

That is a problem thatgeothermal power stations face, where they can 'quench' the geothermal source bytoorapid heat extraction, or more often adding too much cool water. Geotechnical engineers know about the problem, and are getting better and better at mapping the heat resource and designing the systems to not over cool. So a potential issue, but managable.

[@BULLEAD]

The city of Staufen im Breisgau in southwest Germany suffers from a localized land uplift, which has occurred in the past six years in relation to geothermal drilling activities in 2007. So far, severe damages at 269 buildings have been recorded.

[@johnburns4017]

Where the drillings to a shallow depth?

[@MRJWWstories]

I think you need to put a fence around that

[@colinkeizer7353]

Silly question, but I must. Is any community currently paying fines for 'dumping' warm mines water into cold(er) streams? Maybe not fines, but perhaps financing the operations of pumps to remove threatening levels of (warm) water from mines and then also financing the cooling of excessively warm water before returning it to the natural landscape?

[@colinkeizer7353]

@@MsRedfarmer Actually, I kind of expected a 'yes, of course there are,' answer. I vaguely remember reading several decades ago about projects that had to avoid 'dumping' warm process water into colder natural streams. What I don't remember is enough to help me search for something more detailed than "warm waste water." Hmm . . . maybe the mining terms will help.

[@johnburns4017]

Warm mine water getting pumped back down the mine, or allowed to drop by gravity, no need to dump into streams.

[@RandomActsOfMadness]

Only 2% of UK homes are connected to district heating.. Even if the UK built a proper district heating grid, other sources than geothermal seem more economical. In Sweden where 50% of homes are connected to district heating, only 6% of that heat is geothermal. 45% of the heat comes from burning of forestry byproducts, biofuels of which the UK has limited supply. If we subtract all biofuels, 39% of Swedish district heat comes from burning household waste, a free and abundant fuel. UK could expand their district heating 12x using household waste before needing to tap into geothermal..

[@johnburns4017]

The UK exports household waste to Sweden to burn in their incinerators.

[@malcolm8564]

I get that this heat could be economically piped to large buildings, blocks of flats etc but I think it would be too expensive to run insulated pipelines to individual homes.

[@tombh74]

We have insulated hot water pipes many places here in denmark, but mostly in densly populated areas, and almost all houses have to join else it isn't economically viable.

[@rollthetape88]

sand storage tanks act as heat batteries

[@malcolm8564]

@@rollthetape88 yes but how is that relevant?

[@gedsimpson9854]

Why would it be too expensive, we already do it with gas.

[@timmurphy5541]

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

[@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.

[@therealrobertbirchall]

So what will happen to all the nuclear waste that's been dumped down old coal mines in the English Midlands since 1980?

[@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!!!!!

[@sarcasmo57]

I wish I had some warm Earth water to warm my home.

[@ObiePaddles]

‘This is Britain, and we’re not like that.’ Perfect summary of the British…

[@kennshearer526]

Don’t hold your breath. The Geothermal project in Cornwall (United Downs) started in 2009 and still not a Kw generated. Lots of CO2 produced from the project so far though.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@54mgtf22]

Love your work 👍