Fracking supporters have long touted it as a green technology. Enhanced geothermal energy is finally making that a reality.
Southern California Edison, one of the country’s largest power companies, has just announced a deal to buy electricity from a seven-year-old start-up called Fervo Energy. Like other energy companies, Fervo will use hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” to tap an energy source trapped deep underground.
Coal power plants, for example, burn coal to boil water and pump steam through the turbine. They make reliable electricity, but they also emit pollution and greenhouse gases that cause global warming.capture steam from natural underground hot springs in places such as Iceland or the Geysers in Northern California. These require a rare combination of geologic conditions — heat, underground water and porous rock.
“It’s a big deal,” said Fervo founder and CEO Tim Latimer. “It shows the important role that geothermal is going to play on the grid as a 24/7 carbon-free energy resource.”Models foresee solar panels and wind turbines playing a large role in the carbon-free power grid of the future. But when the wind fails to blow or the sun is hidden, utility companies will need more reliable clean power sources.
Yet the natural gas unleashed by Mitchell’s fracking revolution was never a perfect solution. Burning natural gas still emits greenhouse gases, making it incompatible with the United States’ and other countries’ climate goals. Plus,Story continues below advertisementFracking for heat releases no greenhouse gases. But to meaningfully contribute to emissions cuts, enhanced geothermal will need to expand quickly.
To extract enough heat in places with cooler rock, geothermal developers must drill 15,000 feet or deeper, which is more expensive. Faster drilling helped the oil and gas industry dig deeper to squeeze more profits out of shale rock, and analysts expect geothermal drilling speed to similarly improve.
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