[HN Gopher] Quaise Energy - Unlocking the true power of clean ge...
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Quaise Energy - Unlocking the true power of clean geothermal energy
Author : xojoc
Score : 37 points
Date : 2022-04-09 21:08 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.quaise.energy)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.quaise.energy)
| mcculley wrote:
| I don't know how to reason on the magnitudes and indirect effects
| here. If we are using the temperature differential, don't we have
| to vent that into the atmosphere? Does that heat eventually go
| into the atmosphere anyway?
| GlenTheMachine wrote:
| Any use of energy eventually results in heat; that's just the
| Second Law of Thermodynamics in operation.
|
| But this effect is orders of magnitude smaller than the
| greenhouse effect.
| mcculley wrote:
| I am aware of the 2nd law. I am looking for data on the
| magnitudes involved. Every time there is a promise of very
| cheap energy, I wonder how we will deal with the waste heat.
| throwawayboise wrote:
| The waste heat will be radiated away to space. The premise
| of global warming is that CO2 (and other "greenhouse"
| gasses such as methane) cause more of the heat to be
| retained in the atmosphere.
| d--b wrote:
| Can anyone with experience comment on how realistic that is? Both
| in term of drilling, and in terms of how much power we could
| extract per drill.
| ajross wrote:
| My response here is the same as what I say to proponents of new
| nuclear technologies: it's gotta work on a _balance sheet_ , not
| just in a pitch deck. This isn't a new technology enabling new
| markets and new kinds of growth here, it's just... electricity.
| And even as a renewable option, it needs to be able to compete
| not just with fossil fuel generators with-all-the-externalities-
| factored-in, but with _dams and windmills_ built with century-
| mature technology.
|
| That's just a tall order. Should this be a legitimate research
| topic? Absolutely. Would I put my money down as an investor on
| this being a win? No. Should we be throwing public money at this?
| Hell no, we should be building more turbines with that money.
| Start on the weird stuff only once we've picked the low hanging
| fruit.
| marsven_422 wrote:
| phs318u wrote:
| Assuming the millimeter wave drilling technology does in fact
| hold up (I imagine it draws a LOT of power), the re-use of
| existing infrastructure (drill a hole at every power station site
| that boils water to drive a turbine, with existing transmission
| in place), is brilliant because that's a huge, huge cost avoided
| - and indeed could be stood up in far less time (barring
| government approvals) than most mega-scale alternatives.
|
| Full steam ahead!
|
| EDIT: tbh I did also think that this concept sounds like the
| opening plot for a b-grade disaster movie - "The Day The Earth
| Cracked Open".
| asimpletune wrote:
| Stupid question but is it possible to cool the earth's core if
| this tech was scaled out and used massively?
| trophycase wrote:
| The short answer is no, the long answer is no, but the really
| long answer is that everybody pretends that it's 100% safe but
| I guarantee nobody predicted global warming occurring when
| fossil fuels first started being used. There will be secondary
| effects, we just don't know what they are yet
| makerdiety wrote:
| No one can predict anything when they don't have access to
| the larger model. Assuming the real world corresponds to big
| models rather than the small models and understanding people
| usually have.
| arnihermann wrote:
| There has been some effort on going to really deep depths in IDDP
| (Icelandic Deep Drilling Project) - see https://iddp.is/about/
|
| If I remember correctly, they were never able to hit their goals
| because of drilling down into magma chambers. The steam coming up
| was also of a different scale than regular geothermal steam,
| causing corrosion that has not been dealt with before.
|
| As far as I know, the main problem is coming up with casing
| materials that can withstand the extreme corrosive environment at
| scale and at cost, and for IDDP that's one of the main focuses.
| huqedato wrote:
| Sound too good to be true.
|
| 2024: First full-scale hybrid drilling rig -> 2026: First Super
| Hot Enhanced Geothermal System rated to 100 MW... -> 2028: First
| powerplant.
|
| This false prophet reminds me of Theranos/Elizabeth Holmes.
| Always skeptical when hearing about such unicorns hunting for
| idiots' money.
| thekoma wrote:
| Sounds promising. How realistic is the depth target of 20km
| really? Also, I would assume this infrastructure will be less
| applicable in locations with frequent earthquakes.
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