One additional advantage not really mentioned in the video is that geothermal offers a fairly easy job transition for many oil and gas workers. Same job basically with a different end goal. For those worried about being put out of work by the green transition, this may offer a ray of sunshine.
@kenknudsen675 I dont know WHY people try to avoid the Oil and Gas Companies, (who at the moment are lobbying against the EV revolution), We should welcome them as people who know, everything there is to know about drilling and boring, and it will give them a reason to join the EV side and promote it more !
Plus oil companies record the temperature at the bottom of each drilled well, so we already know proven hot spots. Geothermal actually delivers where nuclear never could.
This tech is great, we could have nonpolluting energy anywhere on Earth. Get this rolled out faster! What worries me is Oil companies have bought up clean energy tech and *suppressed it* many times. We've all seen Eavor on 2 different places now (Disruptive Investing) but who says oil money won't corrupt the mission? He said the wells had a 30 year lifespan but his graph showed peak power production ends in less than 2 years. Are we going to see constantly new drilling at the expense of ratepayers in the future? That's my worry, but hopefully other companies will get in, because this is really an open-source concept at this point.
THANK YOU FOR PUBLICIZING THIS INFORMATION about a topic that is NOT DISCUSSED enough. YES... I SHARE YOUR Optimism..!!! I've been enthusiastic about Enhanced-Geothermal Energy / "Heat-Mining" since the publication of the Detailed Study done jointly by The US Dept. of Energy & M.I.T. in 2006/2007. That report estimates that using existing technological capabilities in the U.S. - up to 2000 Times the U.S. current energy demands could be extracted with this technology... Thanks Again 😊👍 -70SomethingGuy
Here in Sonoma County, we’ve been benefiting from 24/7 “conventional” geothermal power from The Geysers steam wells for decades. And we recharge the existing steam aquifer with tertiary treated wastewater pipelined from the central county treatment plant. Nevertheless, Sonoma Clean Power, our local power supplier, recently entered into contracts with Eavor, Chevron & Cyrq Energy to develop 3 new geothermal projects in Sonoma & Mendocino Counties. Cyrq is going to re-purpose existing depleted steam wells at The Geysers to create a geothermal storage “battery.” Eavor & Chevron will each be developing new Advanced Geothermal power plants strategically located to connect to the existing grid. It’s happening here!
As coal plants are decommissioned, their expensive and valuable grid connections will become available for re-purposing. Every old coal plant should be eyeing this technology so they can be reborn as a geothermal plant.
Problem is that this has more potential for environmental disasters. Cave-ins are a when, not an if, and given that, there's a potential for leaks of this geothermal water/steam to push pollutants from the mine into the surrounding water table. Another issue is the fact that coal mines release radon and other radionuclides. It's bad enough in coal country that state health depts have offered radon meters to affected towns. Overall it's promising in places that lack other renewable sources, but it needs to be engineered to fail safe and not spread any pollutants.
@@lozoft9 I think you are picking up on a different issue. The post was about decommissioning coal generation plants not coal mines. This was seen as attractive because the electricity grid infrastructure would already be in place at such locations.* The actual geothermal aspects would be deep down in unpolluted rock not in old mine workings. Also the system does not work at pressure so there is no mechanism for driving anything other than heat via natural circulation (according to this video). * Anyway, as far as the UK is concerned we already decommissioned 99% of coal generation so it's no longer an option.
Definitely one of the most reasonable ? proposed solutions I have seen to date. It's exciting to see technology with a working model and is not decades away from deployment. Full disclosure. Go Canada! 🇨🇦.
Dave, your observation that science and technology are steadily progressing and solving problems is spot on. It's what I've believed for decades: that we've created amazing tech, but then it's mostly applied to manufacturing weapons of war. As we know, it eventually comes into widespread commercial use, but this often seems like an accidental set of solutions to global problems. In this century, we have the challenge and the great opportunity to deliberately solve humanity's most dire problems, simply because the largest one we're facing for the indefinite future, climate warming, impacts the entire globe. History tells us that when we face existential emergencies, such as world wars, resources are unleashed that we never knew existed and when people are properly focused amazing things can be accomplished. But now, we can and must work for the greater, long term good. War and preparation for war has mostly held us back from fulfilling our potential as a civilization. So, we (humanity) must decide: will we "get busy living or get busy dying"?
Ten thumbs up! Space,/Mars exploration spins off technology, but directly investing all that Mars program waste on EARTH problems would produce orders of magnitude more benefits.
Yea and governments in the west are going on about it and making us pay for it, but drag their feet when solutions like this come up. I wonder why? Mostly it is because if they can’t see a good way of enriching themselves by this tech then it is no good. Look at the last few years and how they all made millions. If that was not possible then it would never of happened. It was so good that they did not want to let go and keep us under the tyranny for much longer. It is all about them and whether they can make out of it.
Here in Alberta, bringing up Eavor can wildly change a conversation about energy sustainability because it’s a home-grown technology that uses some of our finest skillsets. Unfortunately it’s not economically viable here yet because the methane powered electricity is so dominant and there’s no infrastructure for district heating. But I have hope that we’ll be able to make some different choices PDQ.
This is excellent. A total game changer. I see only one problem (I've been in construction management with the USAF for 13 years and then at a veterans hospital in facilities management, construction inspection and designs for 21 years). What is that issue? Politics! I feel mentally hurt that we have a government that will demand the rare earth elements that only make us more dependent on China...making them more powerful and rich while we get buried. So that answer is getting on talk shows perhaps like FOX NEWS and podcasts and videos like this one. to force the issue into the light by public opinion and demonstrations... even picket line and poster like 'walkathons'. This should be an easy sell providing the nation buying into it is not corrupted!! So more publicity... get loud... do show and tell... give demonstrations to colleges and even High Schools as they (the young) are the future!
As someone from Western Canada, yes I do share the enthusiasm and pride in the development of this scalable technology. In true Canadian fashion, they took a look around, and down, to see what they had to work with and then got on with figuring it out, and making it work.
Finally a technology with no adverse environmental problems! Plus the oil and gas companies will have a place to keep their tech and employees in the workforce.
Whoa there ... "no adverse environmental problems" is may be a bit strong! It certainly looks promising and with the potential for fewer environmental problems but let's not get too excited! It would be a problem if you built a massive geothermal plant in my back back garden ... or spent a few years building extensive associated infrastructure ... or impinged on land that's best used for agriculture ... etc etc. Don't get me wrong this all seems potentially very positive to me but let's keep it realistic.
@MrAdopado The geothermal plant will replace the fossil fuel plant that provides the steam that drives the generators. It's footprint may take up less area than the fossil fuels plant did. No need for fuel tanks or coal storage yards because you just put the water back into the ground to be reheated.
Depending on the location, some geothermal sites give out more greenhouse gas emissions than fossil fuels. And as for adverse environmental effects, well, there's evidence of these sites causing minor earth tremors and underground explosions during drilling so much that some sites had to temporarily suspend operations and some had to be abandoned. We are still exploring so we'll probably find ways around it.
He said they will use a chemical to case the well to prevent collapse. Of course, this unnamed chemical will contaminate aquifers etc. Plus read about the risks of earthquakes causes by deep drilling. Watch a geophysicist TH-camr and professor called Sabine Hossenfelder regarding this topic of geothermal.
There is also a company (FRI-EL-GEO) here in Italy that uses pretty the same method to produce both heat and electricity from medium enthalpy sites. They founded in Italy (only in the north of Italy to be precise) around 100 sites where can be built geothermal power plants with a capacity of around 200 MW of heat and 20/30 MW of electricity... For each site, within an area of just two hecrares per PP! Their goal is to build around 15 if those by 2030 and trying to reach as many PPs as they can by 2050. And that is massive for Italy that has a very good geothermal potential. The project is called "Pangea". I hope Geothermal could be used more and more because it is extremely "democratic" as we can find it almost everywhere
Thanks for another informative video. Eavor has a nice synergy with the fossil fuel drilling skill set. It could nudge fossil fuel companies to be more like allies instead of enemies to energy transition.
This would allow a large part of the oil & gas industry to transition their skills to something beneficial while maintaining a viable business. This could result in less fighting and heel dragging against the transition.
We will see. Could go both ways. The fossil fuel giants are bound to loose a LOT of money from their current equipment and projects being phased out. They could just buy in to hinder or kill it. But independent drilling contractors definitely should be all over this.
@@faustinpippin9208 The fossil fuel industry knows it's fighting a losing battle with finite resources and public opinion. Eventually it will be more profitable for them to jump ship to renewables; they are in the process now albeit much slower than they should be. A few decades from now today's fossil fuel companies will be global leaders in renewables and they won't remember anything about the century they tried to destroy the planet.
Fossil fuel companies aren't the problem. Companies burning fossil fuels are the problem. Exactly how did you think all this was going to happen? Did you think that entirely new companies would form and existing companies would go away? That's not how things work. The companies that get fossil fuels out of the ground already have the infrastructure and logistics needed to do things like this. They also have the money to do research. Fossil fuel companies were ALWAYS going to be at the forefront of getting off fossil fuels.....
In the not-too-distant future, perhaps the Hot, bitter Tears of sorely disappointed investors may offer a further source of waste heat recovery energy?
It is possible to reduce the need for dynamic load with mass in dwellings with continuous heating or cooling, programmed intermittent pumping for ground water recharge, programmed intermittent pumping for water tower refilling, programmed intermittent heating of hot water and I suppose more elegant ideas than my simple mind can come up with. That said I'd like to use portable nuclear reactor to do thermal fracking to increase the yield of oil and gas fields. Or to use this technology in the oil field to heat fracking fluid for higher yields. ;-)
Would have been good if you asked a few more questions about the flexibility. When it down ramps I power output does it build up power for later use? If not the cost is per GW not pre GWh. Nuclear can already ramp up and down like this and the is the GW output.
S.Korea, geothermal plant caused medium scale earth quake and the closed after initial test. Few building and houses at Po-Hang, city near the plant, were damaged, some evacuated houses were never used again. Investigation reports water pumping changed tension of earth. it's really hard to prediction this kind of situation. It costed over $30 millions and the company bankrupt.
I'd like to see more specifics about how deep, how hot, and how much power all these projects achieve. Apparently 3 KM, where the rocks aren't hot enough to generate steam, so there's no electricity generated, just hot water for district heating. In the UK there's projects to use old coal mines, pulling heat out using heat pumps and running hot water distribution. The real interesting project is drilling deep using mm wave gyrotron plasma drills, and getting very hot steam. That would work virtually anywhere and run generators.
The mm wave drill tech is probably too difficult/expensive to scale up. Would likely be most useful in places that lack other alternatives. It's easier to use tech already developed for oil and gas.
In Finland geothermal heating has been a main source of heating for small to large scale housing. It is relatively cheap and subsidized by the state. There are a few s Flaws but in general it is a great system.
Not really "at last" though. The world's first geothermal powerplant was built in 1904, in Italy. Factoring in how long it took to actually build it, we've had the technologically for 120 years. It's sad we have less than 70 geothermal plants in America.
Across the midwest, there are 2 uses that stand out. First, the low grade heat used by ethanol plants.They burn a lot of Nat. gas . The other is at large grain handling and drying facilities. Again, a lot of gas is used to produce low grade heat.
I've been a proponent of geothermal energy since i first heard about it in the 90s. My family have a country plot near Cadillac Michigan that's offgrid. It's been powered by GT for 30 years now.
Been following them since the start. So many advantages is compelling. They broke ground on a plant in Germany a few months ago. It’s finally happening.
I would like to see an example of this geothermal technology installed adjacent to a major coal power station to use its existing boilers and electricity generating turbines. I would think this could substantially reduce coal usage, and lead to a total switch away from coal. The outcome from this example would provide a real world business case for converting climate polluting coal power stations into a heathier and a greener geothermal.
it has amazed me for a very long time how we can be so daft to ignore the potential of sitting on a planet with a red hot core. Thanks for bringing this to our attention!
We don't ignore it, we have just used other cheaper energy sources. Besides, technological and economical progress tend to be in lockstep. The technology they use was dependent on the fracking revolution, something that happened only a mere decade ago.
Even with modern tech, this particular geothermal solution is still cost prohibitive. The guy being interviewed said as much when he mentioned getting government grants for it and the west coast giving a luke warm reception (and I looked up a paper on it). Looks like a promising emerging tech though.
Back in the 1960ies I saw our national oil company drilling for oil along the railway line I used going to my grammar school in the province of Styria (you might connect Styria to Arnold 😜). They found hot springs instead which now are serving health spas and heat greenhouses to produce vegetables all year round. From the point of the oil lobby this has been a failed investment 🙈. As regards public money for getting a ‘new‘ technology off the ground: has anybody calculated what it will cost to decommission atomic power stations? The Germans will know! Not public money 😜? The atomic industry is in such a mess that they can only add new stations next to the old, which saves them the outrageous decommissioning costs for the spent ones.
He only explained the basics of how geothermal can work. I've heard of this, but it was never done since it was too expensive to reliably drill far enough down. It wasn't worth it. This video does nothing to explain what seperestes them from others. What are they doing allowing them to be able to do it? What's the cost per Khw hour? I'm just not really seeing what is revolutionary about this. Outside sealing the holes reliably, and connecting them. I've already heard of the looping design a long time ago.
A local company! Thank you so much Dave for spotlighting a renewable idea from my part of the world. I'd never heard of Eavor before, but it turns out they're from Calgary. And their pilot project is right here in the province. It's too bad there's nobody in Alberta willing to fund them, though! Sounds like all their current projects are going to be in Europe and the western US, when we need geothermal energy too. I think their closed loop geothermal systems are a great idea, particularly in more northern climates where sunlight isn't as intense as at the equator. Between the sun and the Earth we should be just about covered for energy and have no need to use fossil fuels.
With an Alberta Provincial election in a few weeks time there is no better time to ask what their party’s stance is on supporting home grown technology.
Met these folks at GeoConvention 2022. Friendly, intelligent folks who are determined to make a positive impact on the world. Here's hoping their technology is a huge success!
Another huge benefit of this is relieving the pressure on the power grid. There are a few companies pursuing this. I am hugely optimistic about how this progresses in the next few years.
@@mrphilbert1 You had better learn that storage doesn't have to store only renewables. Storage works on the surplus or deficit of the available power; where it comes from makes no difference. That's why storage is so good at relieving congestion on the grid.
I have been a big fan of this company for 2 years now. I have spoken with the CEO of a midwest (US) utility about this several times. The well in New Mexico returned 250° C. With newer drilling methods just around the corner (mm and plasma) they could go lower and get 500° C. At these temperatures existing power plants can shut down there boilers and switch to the geothermal source. The remainder of the infrastructure can still be used. While it is too early to know the exact cost of these systems, it will definitely be a fraction of nuclear. This will end any new nuclear.
Great video. Eavor is just one of the geothermal energy developers making headway in the baseload renewable energy sector. I commend them on their achievements. Good Water Energy in Australia and currently expanding into the US, has patented mud percussion drilling technology that is now acheiving drilling costs below US$1,000 per metre into 400 degree granite and depths below 8,000m. The company has demonstrated continuous penetration rates above 15 metres per hour in 400 Mpa granite and bit life exceeding 400m. Gauge loss at just 4mm per 1,000m drilled in granite. Well completions are now possible at 11" below 10,000m with just $10m in total costs and below $9m when using on site geothermal elecricity to run drill rigs. Good Water Energy's patented drilling technology and the patented geothermal syphoning systems, geothermal green hydrogen, pumping, desalination and district heating patented technology is now making it possible to produce at any costal location, green electricity with a CAPEX below US$4m per MWe and generation coss below US$0.01c per kWh, sea water desaliantion at less than $0.10c per kl, green hydrogen production with alkaline electrolysis, below $1.00 per kg, urea fertiliser at less than 30c per kg (with a source of CO2) and district heating at a cost below 50c per MWt. To produce 1 million tonne of green hydrogen from sea water per year will require just 200Ha of land for a geothermal bore field comparred to more than 500,000 Ha for solar panels and battery storage. The deeper geothermal wells will produce on average, 20MWt from granite for hundreds of years without decline in production levels. Geothermal energy has the huge advantage of available thermal energy after elecricty generation to pump sea water, distill sea water and to compress hydrogen after electrolysis. These processes normally require more than 150kWh of elecricity per kg of green hydrogen production which is why geothermal enregy will be the only viable renewable energy source for commercially viable green hydrogen production, in any country. The sleeping giant is awakening.
1:17 - I always flinch when someone calls a natural resource infinate. The Victorians thought that the oceans were an infinate sink for sewage, but now we know different.
Very encouraging. Thank you. There’s a further “soft” benefit which is harder to quantify but important: the technology doesn’t require large, ugly, above-ground equipment and infrastructure. That’s going to make it a much easier sell in sceptical communities. :-)
Surprisingly, I am happy to see seed money in the U.S. coming from fossil fuels companies. This shows two things. One, that their expertise in drilling technology will help advance these geothermal pilot projects, and more importantly, two, that some of these companies are finally waking up to the fact that their business model needs to pivot soon to participate in the renewable transformation, or become dinosaurs, a particularly apt metaphor for the challenges they face today.
Plus they're already organized and established in the business of energy provision, which is surely not as simple as it sounds. Getting established with adjacent and interdependent industries, and breaking into the economic and political systems that support the field is time consuming, expensive, and risky.
The major oil and gas companies have been investing in green energy for a couple decades now. They're in the energy business, not the hydrocarbon business.
@@MarkRose1337 The major oil and gas companies are *still* lobbying to stop renewable projects, putting dark money into PACs to get pro fossil fuel politicians elected, and do much greenwashing. They stubbornly refuse to change. They have no intention of changing to prevent climate change.
@@rushja The world still needs hundreds of billions invested into new oil and gas projects annually. Hundreds of millions would die without replacement capacity being developed, either from starvation or freezing to death. Old infrastructure cannot be shut off overnight.
Geothermal energy isn’t rocket science but systems live or die on their costs and efficiency. I was disappointed that there wasn’t a single mention of how much power produced this way would cost. It seems to me that a system that just relies on thermo-siphoning to bring the heat up is going to have a relatively low heat output to heat exchanger size ratio. On the plus side, it won’t exhaust the heat supply as quickly. What it will mean is that upfront costs are going to take a very long time to be paid back. I just don’t see this as any sort of revolution, just a small evolutionary step. Without figures, we don’t know whether it’s a viable evolutionary step.
It is nice to some fellow Canadians engineering a solution to the problem. As a Canadian engineer myself I know how hard the early years are in starting a new company. I fully expect that when this starts to make some serious coin that foreign investors will buy it, move the company to the USA. The main Canadian beneficiaries being the people that stuck eith it through all this. But in 20 years most of the world will not even realize this is Canadian technology. But really, we do not care if it helps slow the rate of climate change and eventually stop it. So more power to these people and I hope they sell out for enough to be very wealthy people.
I have long thought that this approach would come into being ...good to see I wasn't mistaken and such a project could indeed happen ... great video ..!
Maybe the strangest thing that i (being from germany and highly interested in such things) first time hear about this being done in Geretsried a small bavarian town. The place is nearly perfect as they tried twice to go the aquifere way and failed because of to little hot water that could pumped up (against expectations) to have any commercial value. So really the place where the Eavor system could shine, if working as expected.
Rly? I lived there a decade back for a few years.. Knew of the volcanic underground and experienced a small quake, but never heard of the town having geothermal projects done. Altough I too am interested in the topic and even somewhat politically active in the renewables field. Talk about having my head up my....
What is the lifetime cost/KWH? If it can beat other forms of generation without subsidies, it might be a winner. * It has a big advantage in that there is no fuel cost so it all comes down to construction and operational costs. * Operational costs should not be all that different from any other steam-driven system. * It seems like it comes down to the construction costs..... If the site does not require a huge investment in power lines to get to it, I would think it could end up being reasonably cost-effective. One interesting benefit is that the NIMBY problem would probably be a lot less than most other types of power plants.
As I'm a Albertan, who's retired from construction in the 'patch, mostly around the oilsands. I'm proud of this Calgary company taking the experience and information gathered from Alberta's oil and gas industry and applied it to green energy. Don't you think it weird that oil and gas have played a important part in this?
Oil and gas have a lot of expertise on drilling and geology. This is actually another advantage of geothermal, it can exploit knowledge and experts already available
If they invest in this venture in earnest, all the better. But I think ppl should scrutinize their actions closely considering how they killed the GM EV-1 and the NiMH EV battery. Thankfully, I think they're only taking part in Eavor's ventures as contractors, so they don't actually have control over the startup or its IP, like in the case of the NiMH battery.
Scalable, marketable, workforce/skillset-transferable, dynamically baseload-able, big oil investable... I'm very grateful to you Dave for introducing me to Eavor. As many comments have already said, a rare ray of hope! Top content as always :D
It is interesting to realize that when in a place like my hometown of Sudbury Ontario it can be extremely cold at-40 deg celcius and just 10 feet underground it’s around 10 deg C . A 50 deg delta!
Surface level geothermal is already a game changer. A few feet deep, paired with a heat exchanger will already save you loads in energy cost. This is on a whole other level though.
Having grown up in Alberta, Canada, where Eavor is based, I am very happy to see the advanced precision drilling tech developed in Alberta's oil industry used for this process. Eavor specialises in a closed loop system which has many advantages over tapping superheated ground water that is usually corrosive. Deep geothermal (10,000+ m) in granite could help mitigate the cooling effect of the water-carrying pipes in the hot rock. Alberta is addicted to oil and has a hubris problem. It will be difficult for it to transition to low carbon energy. But if they don't do it, especially with home grown industrial innovation, renewables and EVs will force them to pivot or risk owning a sunset industry with hundreds of billions in stranded assets and environmental liabilities.
Another great video Dave, I am fully appreciating the gravity of the news that we are looking to be the first year where fossil fuel use decreased. Some great news in times of doom & gloom. Your videos are keeping me positive about the change happening around the world to hopefully pull us out of global catastrophe 🙏🏼
Phooey. Geothermal has been around forever, and its never remotely gone mainstream except for Iceland, where you only have to dig very shallow wells to gain significant heat. Theres no mention in this video about what Eavor has done to change the economics of geothermal. Their significant rig still took 112 days to drill 5KM, about 48m a day. Digging deep holes using drill bits which have an expected life of about 100 hrs is slow and expensive. There was a video a while back of Quaise Energy using microwave drilling to speed things up, but they've gone quiet. If you go deeper and get your fluid hotter than Eavor's 250C, then you start getting much better returns. But that requires much deeper rock with much higher temperatures than existing oil drilling tech can reach. Its doesn't sound like Eavor is going to go past that threashold either.
Finally somebody coming with solid and simple Geothermal solution! Excellent news and kudos to EU for supporting Eavor's technology! We need more of these solutions! Thx for making this vid!
This is interesting, these boreholes can also be used for nuclear waste disposal once they are depleted (assuming the reactors for waste disposal are never built) since they are so similar to the method of bore hole disposal especially the deep granite version.
I'm glad to hear about this company's progress. I remember seeing experimental deep drilling geothermal experiments back in the 1970s. This newer technology may finally lead to a practical expansion of those early efforts.
still going to be challenges. but like battery tech, once you have something good enough, it's time to start running with it and develop it as you go. geothermal takes no extra mining to fuel it after the original drilling. fusion will be decades away before it's fiscally feasible to run them. geothermal is the new 19th century coal. as shown, we have amazing drilling tech nowadays to make it capable.
The speed at which the generator plant loses thermal energy is a function of the effective R value of the rock between the heat source and the thermal extraction pipes. Just think of how much energy you could pump out from Yellowstone National Park(I.e. a big caldera )and how quickly the extraction process would equalize . Each plant would never run out of heat.
Getting close to volcano magma chambers can be bad. I recall at least one geothermal energy project went bust because they accidentally drilled into one. Just no need either. At the kind of depths these guys are talking about there is ample heat virtually anywhere in the world. The fellow was spot on when he said granitic basement rock. That’s the kind of common, geographically stable, non-chemically reactive rock to be drilling into maintaining a high level of confidence that you won’t encounter any project killing surprises.
@@joelsmith4394 Yeah, siting isn't as foolproof as Dave made it out to be. There are still geologies that would make Eavor cry, but it's still a whole lot better than both current geothermal and EGS (fracking)
Isn't it more efficient to generate electricity and run heat pump for heating? If electricity generation is 50% efficient, but heat pump is 300-400% efficient (COP 3-4), you still end up 1.5-2x more efficient heating than just using heat. Also electricity can be used outside of heating season.
@@sturmeko In Denmark the easily accessible water isn't hot enough to generate electricity. I am not a geologist, but allegedly it is complicated to drill deep enough to access to the very hot water.
Nice to see pretty views of Copenhagen! This technology could possibly solve a huge (from my point of view at least) problem with district heating. It is officially classed as carbon neutral, but actually burns trees from as far away as Canada. This is as far as I'm concerned neither carbon neutral nor sustainable, and yet the government and local councils are really pushing to roll out district heating to all.
I can't believe you only have half a million subscribers. I think they should have talked about what happens to them tubes if the ground cracks and shift, damages the tube and how they fix it. Because that probably will happen.
We keep forgetting that although the wind doesn't always blow and the sunshine isn't always there, the rise in battery storage is a perfect link to balance this deficit. And, as you say geothermal is a great asset too.😊
Geothermal has a smaller surface footprint that solar and wind, so should be easier to deal with local NIMBYism. If it uses fracking instead of Eavor's boreholes, then triggering earthquakes might be an issue.
Another advantage of this technology is that it remains an underground activity and thus won't aggravate the competition over ground surfaces, contrary to wind turbines or biofuel for example.
While I understand that with time the rocks in the vicinity may cool down. But I would consider that closing the facility for a few years will allow the heat at lower levels to reheat the facility. Thereby allowing the facility to start up again. This process could continue for millennia using the same facilities albeit with upgrades dependent on the durability of the pipes.
I am very excited about geothermal, and I am increasingly confident that Eavor is moving in the right direction. Their well design reduces my concerns about aquifer contamination, induced seismicity, climate change vulnerability, and water consumption of other geothermal well designs. Our current alternate energy infrastructure does little to overcome the gaps in production of wind and solar energy. The power capacity and duration and the environmental impacts and cost of grid batteries (especially Li-ion) is driving us to find other ways to fulfill continuous base load and flexible power needs to integrate with wind and solar. I’m not saying that some use of batteries is not justified, but that lithium-ion batteries are not an adequate solution for scaling up the energy infrastructure for wind and solar integration. There are many grid battery designs based on different chemistries and technologies so I hope we move to those, but geothermal is, if we can prove the production, a far better solution.
I suspect the big vulnerability these systems will face is seismic activity. So, "anywhere in the world, regardless of geological conditions?" I doubt that statement in your description. But it does look very promising, and I have thought that geothermal was being overlooked and underutilized.
Areas of high seismic activity usually have heat sources much closer to the surface than other places. Which is why the Volcanic Ring of Fire around the Pacific aligns with where the earthquakes occur.
@@petergibson2318 True. But this specific design is around freeing us from the geographical constraints of those areas when trying to exploit the heat energy radiating up from the planet's core, and trying to get it someplace else. Looking specifically at the design graphic at 4:17 it seems that the various tubes would be very vulnerable to being severed or collapsed by even minor seismic activity. A few years ago while assessing risk of building on a specific piece of rural property in east Georgia, USA I looked at various things - flood, forest fires, hurricanes, drought, etc - and earthquakes were on the list. I was surprised to find how many small earthquakes were detected, and minor fault lines were mapped nearby (within a few hundred miles) of what I assumed was a completely stable area. It's not that I was wrong so much as that I just didn't have any real education in geology so I didn't think about how the crust beneath me is not one solid piece but many many different mineral composites and cavities filled with waters and gases that are actually constantly subject to forces we never think about pressing them together. So - I'm sure the engineers are aware of the risk. And the insurance companies will be too....
I was surprised that cold and hot pipes in Eavor's design were not co-axial. If one pipe was housed within the other pipe, and enough insulation was present, the majority of the heat would exist in the outer (hotter) pipe. Also, using heat density to move the fluid is excellent.
3:20 because they're not pipes - they're chemically sealed well bores. I expect this is a lot easier and cheaper to implement than trying to build actual pipes deep underground?
Very interested in EAVOR's technology and pleased to see them moving forward with planning several new commercial projects. That begins to address the three main sets of remaining questions: 1) Will their completed systems operate continuously and robustly for multiple years? 2) Will their completed systems be financially successful, with a reasonable payback period and continuous profitable operations thereafter? 3) Will there be unmanageable geologic or technology surprises? Of course, all of these require time to develop satisfactory answers, time and multiple systems delivered to multiple customers.
Very interesting development. Is it really a "deploy anywhere" solution, or would somewhere with a lot of geological movement (earthquakes, maybe fracking) mean that the wellbores get damaged and can't function any more?
Well as long as you can generate electricity relatively nearby transmission lines can carry the power where it’s needed. I mean we already generate hydro electricity in BC and send it all the way down to the states, a span larger than most countries. But that’s a good point you have.
One additional advantage not really mentioned in the video is that geothermal offers a fairly easy job transition for many oil and gas workers. Same job basically with a different end goal. For those worried about being put out of work by the green transition, this may offer a ray of sunshine.
Yes. you make a GREAT Point...! -70SomethingGuy
Note that renewables is a net job creator.
@kenknudsen675
I dont know WHY people try to avoid the Oil and Gas Companies, (who at the moment are lobbying against the EV revolution),
We should welcome them as people who know, everything there is to know about drilling and boring, and it will give them a reason to join the EV side and promote it more !
Plus oil companies record the temperature at the bottom of each drilled well, so we already know proven hot spots. Geothermal actually delivers where nuclear never could.
This tech is great, we could have nonpolluting energy anywhere on Earth. Get this rolled out faster! What worries me is Oil companies have bought up clean energy tech and *suppressed it* many times. We've all seen Eavor on 2 different places now (Disruptive Investing) but who says oil money won't corrupt the mission? He said the wells had a 30 year lifespan but his graph showed peak power production ends in less than 2 years. Are we going to see constantly new drilling at the expense of ratepayers in the future? That's my worry, but hopefully other companies will get in, because this is really an open-source concept at this point.
THANK YOU FOR PUBLICIZING THIS INFORMATION about a topic that is NOT DISCUSSED enough. YES... I SHARE YOUR Optimism..!!! I've been enthusiastic about Enhanced-Geothermal Energy / "Heat-Mining" since the publication of the Detailed Study done jointly by The US Dept. of Energy & M.I.T. in 2006/2007. That report estimates that using existing technological capabilities in the U.S. - up to 2000 Times the U.S. current energy demands could be extracted with this technology... Thanks Again 😊👍
-70SomethingGuy
Wow, if that came out in 2006, and we certainly knew how to drill then, why has it taken so long?
Here in Sonoma County, we’ve been benefiting from 24/7 “conventional” geothermal power from The Geysers steam wells for decades. And we recharge the existing steam aquifer with tertiary treated wastewater pipelined from the central county treatment plant. Nevertheless, Sonoma Clean Power, our local power supplier, recently entered into contracts with Eavor, Chevron & Cyrq Energy to develop 3 new geothermal projects in Sonoma & Mendocino Counties. Cyrq is going to re-purpose existing depleted steam wells at The Geysers to create a geothermal storage “battery.” Eavor & Chevron will each be developing new Advanced Geothermal power plants strategically located to connect to the existing grid. It’s happening here!
As coal plants are decommissioned, their expensive and valuable grid connections will become available for re-purposing. Every old coal plant should be eyeing this technology so they can be reborn as a geothermal plant.
Problem is that this has more potential for environmental disasters. Cave-ins are a when, not an if, and given that, there's a potential for leaks of this geothermal water/steam to push pollutants from the mine into the surrounding water table. Another issue is the fact that coal mines release radon and other radionuclides. It's bad enough in coal country that state health depts have offered radon meters to affected towns. Overall it's promising in places that lack other renewable sources, but it needs to be engineered to fail safe and not spread any pollutants.
@@lozoft9 I think you are picking up on a different issue. The post was about decommissioning coal generation plants not coal mines. This was seen as attractive because the electricity grid infrastructure would already be in place at such locations.* The actual geothermal aspects would be deep down in unpolluted rock not in old mine workings. Also the system does not work at pressure so there is no mechanism for driving anything other than heat via natural circulation (according to this video). * Anyway, as far as the UK is concerned we already decommissioned 99% of coal generation so it's no longer an option.
Definitely one of the most reasonable ? proposed solutions I have seen to date. It's exciting to see technology with a working model and is not decades away from deployment. Full disclosure. Go Canada! 🇨🇦.
They should IPO I’d buy shares today! Looks super promising
@@dominikfrohlich6253 yup I'd jump on that 👍
If you're interested, google Deep Earth Energy Production as well, who are building a plant in Saskatchewan.
@@MarkRose1337 Deep is the first producing commercial geothermal power plant in Canada, if I recall correctly--this was pre-Covid.
Dave, your observation that science and technology are steadily progressing and solving problems is spot on. It's what I've believed for decades: that we've created amazing tech, but then it's mostly applied to manufacturing weapons of war. As we know, it eventually comes into widespread commercial use, but this often seems like an accidental set of solutions to global problems. In this century, we have the challenge and the great opportunity to deliberately solve humanity's most dire problems, simply because the largest one we're facing for the indefinite future, climate warming, impacts the entire globe. History tells us that when we face existential emergencies, such as world wars, resources are unleashed that we never knew existed and when people are properly focused amazing things can be accomplished. But now, we can and must work for the greater, long term good. War and preparation for war has mostly held us back from fulfilling our potential as a civilization. So, we (humanity) must decide: will we "get busy living or get busy dying"?
Ten thumbs up! Space,/Mars exploration spins off technology, but directly investing all that Mars program waste on EARTH problems would produce orders of magnitude more benefits.
Widespread implementation of geothermal energy technology like this can be an absolute game changer.
Yea and governments in the west are going on about it and making us pay for it, but drag their feet when solutions like this come up. I wonder why?
Mostly it is because if they can’t see a good way of enriching themselves by this tech then it is no good.
Look at the last few years and how they all made millions. If that was not possible then it would never of happened. It was so good that they did not want to let go and keep us under the tyranny for much longer.
It is all about them and whether they can make out of it.
Be mindful of the rocks' toxic minerals leeching into the water supply, and it shows sooo much potential!
@@anarchisttechsupport6644it's a closed loop
Could you produce good supply of electricity with geothermal ?
I just worry about the big fossil fuel companies buying them out. Then they'll go hoovering up all their engineers and patents.
Here in Alberta, bringing up Eavor can wildly change a conversation about energy sustainability because it’s a home-grown technology that uses some of our finest skillsets.
Unfortunately it’s not economically viable here yet because the methane powered electricity is so dominant and there’s no infrastructure for district heating. But I have hope that we’ll be able to make some different choices PDQ.
Been following Eavor for a couple of years now so I'm VERY happy to see them get some love here.
This is excellent. A total game changer. I see only one problem (I've been in construction management with the USAF for 13 years and then at a veterans hospital in facilities management, construction inspection and designs for 21 years). What is that issue? Politics! I feel mentally hurt that we have a government that will demand the rare earth elements that only make us more dependent on China...making them more powerful and rich while we get buried. So that answer is getting on talk shows perhaps like FOX NEWS and podcasts and videos like this one. to force the issue into the light by public opinion and demonstrations... even picket line and poster like 'walkathons'. This should be an easy sell providing the nation buying into it is not corrupted!! So more publicity... get loud... do show and tell... give demonstrations to colleges and even High Schools as they (the young) are the future!
As someone from Western Canada, yes I do share the enthusiasm and pride in the development of this scalable technology. In true Canadian fashion, they took a look around, and down, to see what they had to work with and then got on with figuring it out, and making it work.
Proud Canadian moment (puffing out chest) and proud moment for science and innovation. BRAVO!
Finally a technology with no adverse environmental problems! Plus the oil and gas companies will have a place to keep their tech and employees in the workforce.
Whoa there ... "no adverse environmental problems" is may be a bit strong! It certainly looks promising and with the potential for fewer environmental problems but let's not get too excited! It would be a problem if you built a massive geothermal plant in my back back garden ... or spent a few years building extensive associated infrastructure ... or impinged on land that's best used for agriculture ... etc etc. Don't get me wrong this all seems potentially very positive to me but let's keep it realistic.
@MrAdopado
The geothermal plant will replace the fossil fuel plant that provides the steam that drives the generators.
It's footprint may take up less area than the fossil fuels plant did. No need for fuel tanks or coal storage yards because you just put the water back into the ground to be reheated.
Depending on the location, some geothermal sites give out more greenhouse gas emissions than fossil fuels. And as for adverse environmental effects, well, there's evidence of these sites causing minor earth tremors and underground explosions during drilling so much that some sites had to temporarily suspend operations and some had to be abandoned. We are still exploring so we'll probably find ways around it.
He said they will use a chemical to case the well to prevent collapse. Of course, this unnamed chemical will contaminate aquifers etc. Plus read about the risks of earthquakes causes by deep drilling. Watch a geophysicist TH-camr and professor called Sabine Hossenfelder regarding this topic of geothermal.
There is also a company (FRI-EL-GEO) here in Italy that uses pretty the same method to produce both heat and electricity from medium enthalpy sites. They founded in Italy (only in the north of Italy to be precise) around 100 sites where can be built geothermal power plants with a capacity of around 200 MW of heat and 20/30 MW of electricity... For each site, within an area of just two hecrares per PP! Their goal is to build around 15 if those by 2030 and trying to reach as many PPs as they can by 2050. And that is massive for Italy that has a very good geothermal potential. The project is called "Pangea". I hope Geothermal could be used more and more because it is extremely "democratic" as we can find it almost everywhere
Thanks for another informative video. Eavor has a nice synergy with the fossil fuel drilling skill set. It could nudge fossil fuel companies to be more like allies instead of enemies to energy transition.
Yes! Imagine how many drilling companies are equipped and ready to punch holes for a new reason. This could be a major game changer!
This would allow a large part of the oil & gas industry to transition their skills to something beneficial while maintaining a viable business. This could result in less fighting and heel dragging against the transition.
We will see.
Could go both ways.
The fossil fuel giants are bound to loose a LOT of money from their current equipment and projects being phased out. They could just buy in to hinder or kill it.
But independent drilling contractors definitely should be all over this.
I mean they won't lose as much money as when the world collapses, and investors are starting to see that too.
Yes. Also would help to get the workers onboard.
Finally someone is pointing out the importance of geothermal. This is a game changer!!! Thx for this. 👍
Hi Dave . . . please keep us updated on Eavor, their technologiy is a game changer for geothermal.
Will do
the update will be: Buyout and patent by fossil fuel companies like with everything else that was supposed to be a "game changer"
@@faustinpippin9208 The fossil fuel industry knows it's fighting a losing battle with finite resources and public opinion. Eventually it will be more profitable for them to jump ship to renewables; they are in the process now albeit much slower than they should be. A few decades from now today's fossil fuel companies will be global leaders in renewables and they won't remember anything about the century they tried to destroy the planet.
Fossil fuel companies aren't the problem.
Companies burning fossil fuels are the problem.
Exactly how did you think all this was going to happen?
Did you think that entirely new companies would form and existing companies would go away? That's not how things work.
The companies that get fossil fuels out of the ground already have the infrastructure and logistics needed to do things like this. They also have the money to do research.
Fossil fuel companies were ALWAYS going to be at the forefront of getting off fossil fuels.....
@@lordgarion514 Eavor is an entirely new company though? I agree with the notion that demand is the problem.
As a Canadian, I wish I could invest in this company but glad to hear good work going on.
So happy you have mentioned Eavor, one of my favourite companies!
In the not-too-distant future, perhaps the Hot, bitter Tears of sorely disappointed investors may offer a further source of waste heat recovery energy?
Great video, Dave. Good point made, we don't need constant baseload, we need a dynamic baseload following wind and solar.
Plus with more widely distributed industrial sized battery installations the system will handle fluctuations in load demands better than ever before.
It is possible to reduce the need for dynamic load with mass in dwellings with continuous heating or cooling, programmed intermittent pumping for ground water recharge, programmed intermittent pumping for water tower refilling, programmed intermittent heating of hot water and I suppose more elegant ideas than my simple mind can come up with.
That said I'd like to use portable nuclear reactor to do thermal fracking to increase the yield of oil and gas fields.
Or to use this technology in the oil field to heat fracking fluid for higher yields. ;-)
Cheers Martin
Would have been good if you asked a few more questions about the flexibility. When it down ramps I power output does it build up power for later use? If not the cost is per GW not pre GWh. Nuclear can already ramp up and down like this and the is the GW output.
@@pohkeee "widely distributed industrial sized battery installations" how do you think that will happen?
thank you for some very hopeful information
S.Korea, geothermal plant caused medium scale earth quake and the closed after initial test. Few building and houses at Po-Hang, city near the plant, were damaged, some evacuated houses were never used again. Investigation reports water pumping changed tension of earth. it's really hard to prediction this kind of situation. It costed over $30 millions and the company bankrupt.
I'd like to see more specifics about how deep, how hot, and how much power all these projects achieve. Apparently 3 KM, where the rocks aren't hot enough to generate steam, so there's no electricity generated, just hot water for district heating. In the UK there's projects to use old coal mines, pulling heat out using heat pumps and running hot water distribution. The real interesting project is drilling deep using mm wave gyrotron plasma drills, and getting very hot steam. That would work virtually anywhere and run generators.
The mm wave drill tech is probably too difficult/expensive to scale up. Would likely be most useful in places that lack other alternatives. It's easier to use tech already developed for oil and gas.
In Finland geothermal heating has been a main source of heating for small to large scale housing. It is relatively cheap and subsidized by the state.
There are a few s
Flaws but in general it is a great system.
It's surprising how hot it gets not too deep down, we have the science to extract this energy at last! Thank you for sharing.
Not really "at last" though.
The world's first geothermal powerplant was built in 1904, in Italy.
Factoring in how long it took to actually build it, we've had the technologically for 120 years.
It's sad we have less than 70 geothermal plants in America.
So awesome that Eavor is a Canadian Company! 🇨🇦
Across the midwest, there are 2 uses that stand out. First, the low grade heat used by ethanol plants.They burn a lot of Nat. gas . The other is at large grain handling and drying facilities. Again, a lot of gas is used to produce low grade heat.
I've been a proponent of geothermal energy since i first heard about it in the 90s. My family have a country plot near Cadillac Michigan that's offgrid. It's been powered by GT for 30 years now.
Been following them since the start. So many advantages is compelling.
They broke ground on a plant in Germany a few months ago. It’s finally happening.
It would be great to get some more information regarding costs, since that's what it's all about at the end of the day..
I had been waiting for this one for a while!
I would like to see an example of this geothermal technology installed adjacent to a major coal power station to use its existing boilers and electricity generating turbines. I would think this could substantially reduce coal usage, and lead to a total switch away from coal. The outcome from this example would provide a real world business case for converting climate polluting coal power stations into a heathier and a greener geothermal.
it has amazed me for a very long time how we can be so daft to ignore the potential of sitting on a planet with a red hot core. Thanks for bringing this to our attention!
We don't ignore it, we have just used other cheaper energy sources. Besides, technological and economical progress tend to be in lockstep. The technology they use was dependent on the fracking revolution, something that happened only a mere decade ago.
Even with modern tech, this particular geothermal solution is still cost prohibitive. The guy being interviewed said as much when he mentioned getting government grants for it and the west coast giving a luke warm reception (and I looked up a paper on it). Looks like a promising emerging tech though.
Back in the 1960ies I saw our national oil company drilling for oil along the railway line I used going to my grammar school in the province of Styria (you might connect Styria to Arnold 😜).
They found hot springs instead which now are serving health spas and heat greenhouses to produce vegetables all year round.
From the point of the oil lobby this has been a failed investment 🙈.
As regards public money for getting a ‘new‘ technology off the ground: has anybody calculated what it will cost to decommission atomic power stations? The Germans will know! Not public money 😜?
The atomic industry is in such a mess that they can only add new stations next to the old, which saves them the outrageous decommissioning costs for the spent ones.
He only explained the basics of how geothermal can work. I've heard of this, but it was never done since it was too expensive to reliably drill far enough down. It wasn't worth it.
This video does nothing to explain what seperestes them from others. What are they doing allowing them to be able to do it? What's the cost per Khw hour?
I'm just not really seeing what is revolutionary about this. Outside sealing the holes reliably, and connecting them.
I've already heard of the looping design a long time ago.
Yes! I share you optimism. Wonderful news. Thanks for sharing.
Brilliant as always 💚
Thank you :-)
Excellent, thank you. I share your frustration with myopic politicians and ministers in charge of energy policy.
A local company! Thank you so much Dave for spotlighting a renewable idea from my part of the world. I'd never heard of Eavor before, but it turns out they're from Calgary. And their pilot project is right here in the province. It's too bad there's nobody in Alberta willing to fund them, though! Sounds like all their current projects are going to be in Europe and the western US, when we need geothermal energy too.
I think their closed loop geothermal systems are a great idea, particularly in more northern climates where sunlight isn't as intense as at the equator. Between the sun and the Earth we should be just about covered for energy and have no need to use fossil fuels.
With an Alberta Provincial election in a few weeks time there is no better time to ask what their party’s stance is on supporting home grown technology.
As a Canadian I do share your optimism! 💪🇨🇦
Met these folks at GeoConvention 2022. Friendly, intelligent folks who are determined to make a positive impact on the world. Here's hoping their technology is a huge success!
God I love this guy's delivery🤣. Infotainment at its best.
Another huge benefit of this is relieving the pressure on the power grid. There are a few companies pursuing this. I am hugely optimistic about how this progresses in the next few years.
No, geothermal **adds** pressure to the power grid. It generates power, but does not store it locally.
@@acmefixer1 What are you taking about? Geothermal generates power 24/7. Explain why it needs storage.
@@mrphilbert1
Show me were I said geothermal needs storage. I said *no such a thing!*
@@mrphilbert1
You had better learn that storage doesn't have to store only renewables. Storage works on the surplus or deficit of the available power; where it comes from makes no difference. That's why storage is so good at relieving congestion on the grid.
@@acmefixer1 Have you ever heard of an off button? How about a dimmer?
I have been a big fan of this company for 2 years now. I have spoken with the CEO of a midwest (US) utility about this several times. The well in New Mexico returned 250° C. With newer drilling methods just around the corner (mm and plasma) they could go lower and get 500° C. At these temperatures existing power plants can shut down there boilers and switch to the geothermal source.
The remainder of the infrastructure can still be used.
While it is too early to know the exact cost of these systems, it will definitely be a fraction of nuclear. This will end any new nuclear.
The business case of district heating seems to be a good way forward in the long run.
Great video. Eavor is just one of the geothermal energy developers making headway in the baseload renewable energy sector. I commend them on their achievements. Good Water Energy in Australia and currently expanding into the US, has patented mud percussion drilling technology that is now acheiving drilling costs below US$1,000 per metre into 400 degree granite and depths below 8,000m. The company has demonstrated continuous penetration rates above 15 metres per hour in 400 Mpa granite and bit life exceeding 400m. Gauge loss at just 4mm per 1,000m drilled in granite. Well completions are now possible at 11" below 10,000m with just $10m in total costs and below $9m when using on site geothermal elecricity to run drill rigs. Good Water Energy's patented drilling technology and the patented geothermal syphoning systems, geothermal green hydrogen, pumping, desalination and district heating patented technology is now making it possible to produce at any costal location, green electricity with a CAPEX below US$4m per MWe and generation coss below US$0.01c per kWh, sea water desaliantion at less than $0.10c per kl, green hydrogen production with alkaline electrolysis, below $1.00 per kg, urea fertiliser at less than 30c per kg (with a source of CO2) and district heating at a cost below 50c per MWt. To produce 1 million tonne of green hydrogen from sea water per year will require just 200Ha of land for a geothermal bore field comparred to more than 500,000 Ha for solar panels and battery storage. The deeper geothermal wells will produce on average, 20MWt from granite for hundreds of years without decline in production levels. Geothermal energy has the huge advantage of available thermal energy after elecricty generation to pump sea water, distill sea water and to compress hydrogen after electrolysis. These processes normally require more than 150kWh of elecricity per kg of green hydrogen production which is why geothermal enregy will be the only viable renewable energy source for commercially viable green hydrogen production, in any country. The sleeping giant is awakening.
Amazing technology! Could be a game changer for Canada - imagine heat wherever we need it!
1:17 - I always flinch when someone calls a natural resource infinate. The Victorians thought that the oceans were an infinate sink for sewage, but now we know different.
Very encouraging. Thank you. There’s a further “soft” benefit which is harder to quantify but important: the technology doesn’t require large, ugly, above-ground equipment and infrastructure. That’s going to make it a much easier sell in sceptical communities. :-)
This is a huge thing. Lots of wind and solar projects are having a hard time being sited because of nimbyism.
Absolutely
I agree totally with you about what science and technology can do but politiciens don't...
Surprisingly, I am happy to see seed money in the U.S. coming from fossil fuels companies. This shows two things. One, that their expertise in drilling technology will help advance these geothermal pilot projects, and more importantly, two, that some of these companies are finally waking up to the fact that their business model needs to pivot soon to participate in the renewable transformation, or become dinosaurs, a particularly apt metaphor for the challenges they face today.
Plus they're already organized and established in the business of energy provision, which is surely not as simple as it sounds. Getting established with adjacent and interdependent industries, and breaking into the economic and political systems that support the field is time consuming, expensive, and risky.
The major oil and gas companies have been investing in green energy for a couple decades now. They're in the energy business, not the hydrocarbon business.
@@MarkRose1337
The major oil and gas companies are *still* lobbying to stop renewable projects, putting dark money into PACs to get pro fossil fuel politicians elected, and do much greenwashing. They stubbornly refuse to change. They have no intention of changing to prevent climate change.
the trouble with the oil industry is they invest 20 million into wind but 5 billion into future oil and gas fields. They need to be reigned in
@@rushja The world still needs hundreds of billions invested into new oil and gas projects annually. Hundreds of millions would die without replacement capacity being developed, either from starvation or freezing to death. Old infrastructure cannot be shut off overnight.
Geothermal energy isn’t rocket science but systems live or die on their costs and efficiency. I was disappointed that there wasn’t a single mention of how much power produced this way would cost. It seems to me that a system that just relies on thermo-siphoning to bring the heat up is going to have a relatively low heat output to heat exchanger size ratio. On the plus side, it won’t exhaust the heat supply as quickly. What it will mean is that upfront costs are going to take a very long time to be paid back. I just don’t see this as any sort of revolution, just a small evolutionary step. Without figures, we don’t know whether it’s a viable evolutionary step.
Would be nice to see the drilling experts in Oil and Gas shifting to geothermal. This is a huge resource, with great untapped potential.
Awesome. Thank you for this one!
This idea must be tried and spread. Thank You for this information.
It is nice to some fellow Canadians engineering a solution to the problem. As a Canadian engineer myself I know how hard the early years are in starting a new company. I fully expect that when this starts to make some serious coin that foreign investors will buy it, move the company to the USA. The main Canadian beneficiaries being the people that stuck eith it through all this. But in 20 years most of the world will not even realize this is Canadian technology.
But really, we do not care if it helps slow the rate of climate change and eventually stop it.
So more power to these people and I hope they sell out for enough to be very wealthy people.
We might get a knee-jerk reaction from some quarters "drilling bad, solar good". The reaction to thorium reactors is a case in point.
I have long thought that this approach would come into being ...good to see I wasn't mistaken and such a project could indeed happen ... great video ..!
Maybe the strangest thing that i (being from germany and highly interested in such things) first time hear about this being done in Geretsried a small bavarian town.
The place is nearly perfect as they tried twice to go the aquifere way and failed because of to little hot water that could pumped up (against expectations) to have any commercial value.
So really the place where the Eavor system could shine, if working as expected.
Rly?
I lived there a decade back for a few years..
Knew of the volcanic underground and experienced a small quake, but never heard of the town having geothermal projects done. Altough I too am interested in the topic and even somewhat politically active in the renewables field.
Talk about having my head up my....
What is the lifetime cost/KWH? If it can beat other forms of generation without subsidies, it might be a winner.
* It has a big advantage in that there is no fuel cost so it all comes down to construction and operational costs.
* Operational costs should not be all that different from any other steam-driven system.
* It seems like it comes down to the construction costs..... If the site does not require a huge investment in power lines to get to it, I would think it could end up being reasonably cost-effective.
One interesting benefit is that the NIMBY problem would probably be a lot less than most other types of power plants.
As I'm a Albertan, who's retired from construction in the 'patch, mostly around the oilsands. I'm proud of this Calgary company taking the experience and information gathered from Alberta's oil and gas industry and applied it to green energy. Don't you think it weird that oil and gas have played a important part in this?
Oil and gas have played an important part in getting our civilisation to this point 😊
@@jamesgrover2005 absolutely, and even here in Alberta, we will transition away. And this is a great way.
Oil and gas have a lot of expertise on drilling and geology. This is actually another advantage of geothermal, it can exploit knowledge and experts already available
If they invest in this venture in earnest, all the better. But I think ppl should scrutinize their actions closely considering how they killed the GM EV-1 and the NiMH EV battery. Thankfully, I think they're only taking part in Eavor's ventures as contractors, so they don't actually have control over the startup or its IP, like in the case of the NiMH battery.
Scalable, marketable, workforce/skillset-transferable, dynamically baseload-able, big oil investable... I'm very grateful to you Dave for introducing me to Eavor. As many comments have already said, a rare ray of hope! Top content as always :D
It is interesting to realize that when in a place like my hometown of Sudbury Ontario it can be extremely cold at-40 deg celcius and just 10 feet underground it’s around 10 deg C . A 50 deg delta!
Surface level geothermal is already a game changer. A few feet deep, paired with a heat exchanger will already save you loads in energy cost.
This is on a whole other level though.
Having grown up in Alberta, Canada, where Eavor is based, I am very happy to see the advanced precision drilling tech developed in Alberta's oil industry used for this process. Eavor specialises in a closed loop system which has many advantages over tapping superheated ground water that is usually corrosive. Deep geothermal (10,000+ m) in granite could help mitigate the cooling effect of the water-carrying pipes in the hot rock. Alberta is addicted to oil and has a hubris problem. It will be difficult for it to transition to low carbon energy. But if they don't do it, especially with home grown industrial innovation, renewables and EVs will force them to pivot or risk owning a sunset industry with hundreds of billions in stranded assets and environmental liabilities.
Wow, I'm accustomed to viewing your channel with an expectation of more doom and gloom. This actually offers a glimmer of hope!
Glad to hear it. I do try to get a bit of balance where I can:-)
The report claiming that fossil fuel usage will decline in 2023 is a phenomenal spark of hope. Thank you so much for this Dave!
Another great video Dave, I am fully appreciating the gravity of the news that we are looking to be the first year where fossil fuel use decreased. Some great news in times of doom & gloom. Your videos are keeping me positive about the change happening around the world to hopefully pull us out of global catastrophe 🙏🏼
Phooey. Geothermal has been around forever, and its never remotely gone mainstream except for Iceland, where you only have to dig very shallow wells to gain significant heat. Theres no mention in this video about what Eavor has done to change the economics of geothermal. Their significant rig still took 112 days to drill 5KM, about 48m a day. Digging deep holes using drill bits which have an expected life of about 100 hrs is slow and expensive. There was a video a while back of Quaise Energy using microwave drilling to speed things up, but they've gone quiet. If you go deeper and get your fluid hotter than Eavor's 250C, then you start getting much better returns. But that requires much deeper rock with much higher temperatures than existing oil drilling tech can reach. Its doesn't sound like Eavor is going to go past that threashold either.
This is, as far as I know, the most promising technology to date to overcome climate problems. 👍
Seen a man that invented a plasma drill that would make this more economically viable.👍✌️
Yay! I've been arguing for this for decades and always been told it was impossible. Hopefully someone in the Hungarian govt is watching this.
If they do, they will probably try to think of a way to stop this.
Finally somebody coming with solid and simple Geothermal solution! Excellent news and kudos to EU for supporting Eavor's technology! We need more of these solutions! Thx for making this vid!
This is interesting, these boreholes can also be used for nuclear waste disposal once they are depleted (assuming the reactors for waste disposal are never built) since they are so similar to the method of bore hole disposal especially the deep granite version.
Yes, I share your optimism. I grew up in Western Alberta and worked in the oil patch while I was young and dumb. It all look very viable!
Thanks!
As always, a very clear and concise presentation.
Thank you! I really appreciate your support :-)
If only I were 20 again!! Hey Kids! Looky here!! 🙏 Dave!
I'm glad to hear about this company's progress. I remember seeing experimental deep drilling geothermal experiments back in the 1970s. This newer technology may finally lead to a practical expansion of those early efforts.
This is very exciting! I'm so glad that I came across your channel, it's awesome!
THIS needs to be streamlined all over the planet. Coupled with Megapacks, we could be energy independent by the end of the decade!
What is Megapack?
"we" ?
still going to be challenges.
but like battery tech, once you have something good enough, it's time to start running with it and develop it as you go.
geothermal takes no extra mining to fuel it after the original drilling.
fusion will be decades away before it's fiscally feasible to run them.
geothermal is the new 19th century coal.
as shown, we have amazing drilling tech nowadays to make it capable.
The speed at which the generator plant loses thermal energy is a function of the effective R value of the rock between the heat source and the thermal extraction pipes. Just think of how much energy you could pump out from Yellowstone National Park(I.e. a big caldera )and how quickly the extraction process would equalize . Each plant would never run out of heat.
I'm sure people will love the idea of massive power plants in yellowstone. The strength of this solution is that it can be done almost anywhere.
Getting close to volcano magma chambers can be bad. I recall at least one geothermal energy project went bust because they accidentally drilled into one. Just no need either. At the kind of depths these guys are talking about there is ample heat virtually anywhere in the world.
The fellow was spot on when he said granitic basement rock. That’s the kind of common, geographically stable, non-chemically reactive rock to be drilling into maintaining a high level of confidence that you won’t encounter any project killing surprises.
@@joelsmith4394 Yeah, siting isn't as foolproof as Dave made it out to be. There are still geologies that would make Eavor cry, but it's still a whole lot better than both current geothermal and EGS (fracking)
Sounds great except for sesmically unstable areas. Such areas would shorten the lifetime of the installation. However, that is a very small issue!
Denmark hopes to use geothermal heating for 20% of the heating in the future. The idea is to use the heat directly instead of generating electricity.
That is because they can use lower temperatures - meaning less infrastructure and higher efficiency.
But it’s also harder to transport than electricity.
Isn't it more efficient to generate electricity and run heat pump for heating? If electricity generation is 50% efficient, but heat pump is 300-400% efficient (COP 3-4), you still end up 1.5-2x more efficient heating than just using heat. Also electricity can be used outside of heating season.
would each household have geothermal heat lines?
@@sturmeko In Denmark the easily accessible water isn't hot enough to generate electricity.
I am not a geologist, but allegedly it is complicated to drill deep enough to access to the very hot water.
Another interesting talk. May this happen quickly!
I am optimistic that scientists and engineers will save us from the unforeseen climate disaster. :)
Thank you Dave, really interesting and encouraging. The drilling skills from oil are immediately transferable - which is a big positive.
Nice to see pretty views of Copenhagen! This technology could possibly solve a huge (from my point of view at least) problem with district heating. It is officially classed as carbon neutral, but actually burns trees from as far away as Canada. This is as far as I'm concerned neither carbon neutral nor sustainable, and yet the government and local councils are really pushing to roll out district heating to all.
I can't believe you only have half a million subscribers. I think they should have talked about what happens to them tubes if the ground cracks and shift, damages the tube and how they fix it. Because that probably will happen.
This sounds promising. Really hope to see tons of these around within the next decade
It all sounds good, although I would have liked to see some numbers (levelized cost, depth of wells, footprint, etc.)
We keep forgetting that although the wind doesn't always blow and the sunshine isn't always there, the rise in battery storage is a perfect link to balance this deficit. And, as you say geothermal is a great asset too.😊
Geothermal has a smaller surface footprint that solar and wind, so should be easier to deal with local NIMBYism. If it uses fracking instead of Eavor's boreholes, then triggering earthquakes might be an issue.
Another advantage of this technology is that it remains an underground activity and thus won't aggravate the competition over ground surfaces, contrary to wind turbines or biofuel for example.
I always wondered why something like this hasn’t been done earlier. Like 20 years ago. I mean we know how to drill right?!
While I understand that with time the rocks in the vicinity may cool down. But I would consider that closing the facility for a few years will allow the heat at lower levels to reheat the facility. Thereby allowing the facility to start up again. This process could continue for millennia using the same facilities albeit with upgrades dependent on the durability of the pipes.
Finally
I am very excited about geothermal, and I am increasingly confident that Eavor is moving in the right direction. Their well design reduces my concerns about aquifer contamination, induced seismicity, climate change vulnerability, and water consumption of other geothermal well designs. Our current alternate energy infrastructure does little to overcome the gaps in production of wind and solar energy. The power capacity and duration and the environmental impacts and cost of grid batteries (especially Li-ion) is driving us to find other ways to fulfill continuous base load and flexible power needs to integrate with wind and solar. I’m not saying that some use of batteries is not justified, but that lithium-ion batteries are not an adequate solution for scaling up the energy infrastructure for wind and solar integration. There are many grid battery designs based on different chemistries and technologies so I hope we move to those, but geothermal is, if we can prove the production, a far better solution.
I suspect the big vulnerability these systems will face is seismic activity. So, "anywhere in the world, regardless of geological conditions?" I doubt that statement in your description. But it does look very promising, and I have thought that geothermal was being overlooked and underutilized.
I have read of 70% the area of the land which is enough to provide the base power required
Areas of high seismic activity usually have heat sources much closer to the surface than other places.
Which is why the Volcanic Ring of Fire around the Pacific aligns with where the earthquakes occur.
@@petergibson2318 True. But this specific design is around freeing us from the geographical constraints of those areas when trying to exploit the heat energy radiating up from the planet's core, and trying to get it someplace else. Looking specifically at the design graphic at 4:17 it seems that the various tubes would be very vulnerable to being severed or collapsed by even minor seismic activity.
A few years ago while assessing risk of building on a specific piece of rural property in east Georgia, USA I looked at various things - flood, forest fires, hurricanes, drought, etc - and earthquakes were on the list. I was surprised to find how many small earthquakes were detected, and minor fault lines were mapped nearby (within a few hundred miles) of what I assumed was a completely stable area. It's not that I was wrong so much as that I just didn't have any real education in geology so I didn't think about how the crust beneath me is not one solid piece but many many different mineral composites and cavities filled with waters and gases that are actually constantly subject to forces we never think about pressing them together.
So - I'm sure the engineers are aware of the risk. And the insurance companies will be too....
Madrid is famous for its earthquakes.@@markadowdy
There's a company doing this in the UK too.
I was surprised that cold and hot pipes in Eavor's design were not co-axial. If one pipe was housed within the other pipe, and enough insulation was present, the majority of the heat would exist in the outer (hotter) pipe. Also, using heat density to move the fluid is excellent.
3:20 because they're not pipes - they're chemically sealed well bores. I expect this is a lot easier and cheaper to implement than trying to build actual pipes deep underground?
Very interested in EAVOR's technology and pleased to see them moving forward with planning several new commercial projects. That begins to address the three main sets of remaining questions: 1) Will their completed systems operate continuously and robustly for multiple years? 2) Will their completed systems be financially successful, with a reasonable payback period and continuous profitable operations thereafter? 3) Will there be unmanageable geologic or technology surprises? Of course, all of these require time to develop satisfactory answers, time and multiple systems delivered to multiple customers.
Very interesting development. Is it really a "deploy anywhere" solution, or would somewhere with a lot of geological movement (earthquakes, maybe fracking) mean that the wellbores get damaged and can't function any more?
Well as long as you can generate electricity relatively nearby transmission lines can carry the power where it’s needed. I mean we already generate hydro electricity in BC and send it all the way down to the states, a span larger than most countries. But that’s a good point you have.
So great to see something with an optimistic tone after so much doom and gloom in the latest videos. Good luck with this project.