Geothermal

A new simulation video from Herrenknecht AG shows off its Urban Vibro Trucks. The machines can deploy thumping devices from their mid-sections that send seismic waves beneath city landscapes to explore the terrain for geothermal development.Geothermal development is coming on strong. Just a few months ago, Google announced that its advanced geothermal plant in Nevada was operational. A cutting-edge method of drilling for geothermal wells announced last month shaves 70% off previous drilling times. And also last month, it…

By NASA Earth Observatory March 1, 2024Astronaut photo of the snow-covered caldera of the Nemrut volcano in eastern Türkiye captured on April 17, 2022, by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station.Lakes and lava flows fill the depression atop this geologically young stratovolcano in eastern Türkiye.An astronaut aboard the International Space Station captured this photo of the snow-covered caldera of the Nemrut volcano in eastern Türkiye, along the western shore of Lake Van. Mount Nemrut (Nemrut Daği) is a…

Hot on the heels of the successful completion of its grid-connected geothermal power plant in Nevada, Fervo Energy is raising $221 million per SEC documents, TechCrunch has exclusively learned. The Houston-based company is one of several enhanced geothermal startups that are racing to tap heat deep in the Earth’s crust. Previous geothermal plants have only scratched the surface by accessing hot springs or shallower rock formations. Fervo uses directional drilling techniques pioneered by the oil…

A potentially game-changing and largely unexplored energy jackpot lies beneath the ocean floor, according to a whitepaper from geoscience tech consultancy CGG. Unique conditions under the sea bed promise cheaper and more accessible geothermal power.Solar and wind can't get us to a clean energy grid alone. Geothermal is a dream source of clean energy in many ways; the hot rocks under our feet hold more energy than humanity could use in a million years... Although just to be clear, that's not a challenge... I'm looking at…

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Geothermal development company Fervo Energy has announced impressive strides being made at its Cape Station facility in southern Utah. The results could lead to a quicker and more widespread uptake of this super-clean energy production process.In a publication announced at the Stanford Geothermal Workshop this week, Fervo said it has been able to drill a horizontal well in just 21 days. That's a 70% reduction in drilling time over its first horizontal well, which was drilled in Nevada in 2022 as part of a Google-backed…

A volcano in southwestern Iceland erupted on Thursday for the third time since December, sending jets of lava into the sky and triggering the evacuation of the Blue Lagoon spa, one of the island country's biggest tourist attractions.The eruption began at about 1 a.m. ET along a three-kilometre fissure northeast of Mount Sýlingarfell, the Icelandic Meteorological Office said. Several communities on the Reykjanes Peninsula were cut off from heat and hot water after a river of lava engulfed a supply pipeline.The strength of…

Geothermal heat, an abundant and carbon-­free energy source, offers an alternative to fossil fuels that doesn’t vary with the weather or time of day. However, conventional geothermal plants require specific geological conditions—in particular, permeable rocks with water sources.Because of this, geothermal accounts for less than 1% of global renewables capacity. But an emerging technology could let us exploit even more of the heat beneath our feet.Enhanced geothermal systems allow companies to access geothermal heat in…

The same tunnels used to extract fossil fuels for centuries are now helping to heat British homes with clean energy from the Earth’s core. It’s called mine water heating and it has the potential to provide critical warmth to hundreds of thousands of homes in the country’s north. At least one quarter of UK homes sit above abandoned coal mines. Residents in these towns and cities concurrently grapple with skyrocketing energy bills. Tapping mine water heat from beneath their feet could be a…

Geothermal heat, an abundant and carbon-­free energy source, offers an alternative to fossil fuels that doesn’t vary with the weather or time of day. However, conventional geothermal plants require specific geological conditions—in particular, permeable rocks with water sources. Because of this, geothermal accounts for less than 1% of global renewables capacity. But an emerging technology could let us exploit even more of the heat beneath our feet.  Enhanced geothermal systems have been in development since the 1970s.…