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| Core samples are studied to learn where and how to create fractures for heat reservoirs. This mostly granitic core is about 10 centimeters in diameter. Clay Jones, Energy and Geoscience Institute, University Of Utah |
What will it take to put geothermal energy to use on a large scale? Iceland uses it nearly exclusively for heat and hot water and for about a fifth of its electricity.
Many countries have geothermal projects. But the vast stores of heat deep beneath Earth’s surface remain largely untapped. “If we can unlock the technologies to make extracting heat in the subsurface technically and commercially viable on a large scale, the promise is huge,” says Bridget Ayling, director of the Great Basin Center for Geothermal Energy at the University of Nevada, Reno (and GRC Board member).
That’s why, she adds, “despite only incremental gains over the last 40 years, the geothermal community continues to pursue engineered geothermal systems,” or EGS, also known as enhanced geothermal systems.
