Monday, September 8, 2014

Technology:

How Fracking Is Saving the Holy Grail of Clean Energy (The Motley Fool)

Thanks to a new technology that was inspired by fracking, America might finally begin to realize its vast geothermal energy potential. While reaching that full potential won't be enough to completely eradicate fossil fuels from the mix, it would provide a nice base-load power source to work with other renewables like wind and solar.

Geothermal energy could be considered the Holy Grail of clean energy. Not only is it clean and renewable, but it can do something wind and solar cannot do: It can provide base-load power. Yet, despite its advantages just one half of one percent of all of America's electricity came from this game-changing power source. That, however, could be about to change thanks to fracking.

The problem is that the top two solutions, wind and solar, don't always work. Sometimes, the sun just doesn't shine, and the wind doesn't blow, and at times these methods can cause more harm than good. The fact that these technologies can't be used for base-load power is a problem for our always-on-the-go economy.

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