By Bob Metcalfe and Jamie Beard, University of Texas at Austin.
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| Sunny Day at Ngatamariki, by Ralph Winmill. GRC Photo Contest 2019. |
Geothermal heat has the potential to solve the looming global energy crisis, not only in the short term but for good. But first, we must prioritize research and development that enables access to enough geothermal heat to meet demand. The potential return on investment? Near limitless and clean power for the entire world.
If we leverage high temperature and pressure technologies that have been developed during the past century in the oil and gas industry and focus on innovation to improve upon those technologies, we could drill for geothermal energy anywhere in the world. Drilling complex, very hot and very deep wells is what the oil and gas industry does best. Existing technologies paired with new innovations aimed at driving down drilling costs can be leveraged to enable drilling approximately 6 miles deep for geothermal energy anywhere in the world. Geothermal baseload is doable within a decade.