Climate Change(d)?

[robnisch]

My alma mater.

OIT Klamath Fall recognized for its geothermal power plant

U.S. Department of Energy recognizes the Oregon Institute of Technology (OIT) for its efforts to not only be heated but also powered by a geothermal power plant.

www.thinkgeoenergy.com

They do have a lot of maintenance issues. The heat exchangers must be cleaned every year or so.
It was cool there because all the walkways were heated, no ice.

 

[TV and credit cards]

A big boost for a climate solution: electricity made from the heat of the Earth

One method of making electricity cleanly to address climate change has been quietly advancing and just hit a milestone.

apnews.com

Horizontal drilling for geothermal.
It complements wind and solar for when the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine because word has it the earth is always hot.

Technology - Fervo Energy

Our breakthrough technology leverages over a decade of innovation in drilling and production from modern oil and gas development, leading to major

fervoenergy.com

California Energy Commission Chair David Hochschild said the state is committed to clean, zero-carbon electricity. He said geothermal complements wind and solar farms by providing steady power when it’s not windy or sunny, and that is key to ensuring reliability as the state cuts fossil fuels.

Geothermal does not complement wind and solar. It is a 24/7 energy source. Be great if they can up scale it. We certainly have some warm places underground in the west. They also happen to be large National Parks as well.

Yeah, geothermal is pretty good. It certainly beats burning coal.

It's not very clean though - it often releases a lot of highly corrosive, toxic, and/or smelly chemicals, particularly sulphur compounds, and it tends to be limited (like hydropower) by the small amount of really suitable terrain.

It also suffers from the corrosiveness and other issues with the working fluid - all those dissolved minerals tend to clog up the works, or eat holes in the equipment, so the maintainence costs (and associated environmental loads) are high.

And, as you point out, there's nothing that "complements" wind and solar, except storage systems - and yhey aren't so much "complementary" as they are "an essential component whose costs are so eye-wateringly high that we would like to pretend they aren't part of our proposed system".

It claims to be load following flexible geothermal power with storage capacity in excess of five days. Using hydraulic fracturing, pumping cold water in, they create an underground radiator, a closed system with an injection and production well. No permeable rock required. They build up pressure within the radiator and release it as needed when wind/solar is unavailable.

Princeton Engineering - Flexible geothermal power approach combines clean energy with a built-in ‘battery’

Flexible geothermal power shows big promise for a decarbonized grid, according to a Princeton-led study in collaboration with Fervo Energy.

engineering.princeton.edu

This geothermal startup showed its wells can be used like a giant underground battery

If Fervo Energy’s field results work at commercial scale, it could become cheaper and easier to green the grid.

www.technologyreview.com

They have an agreement with Southern California Edison for 320MW by 2028.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

The military has another reason for a PWR design: Military stuff is meant to go in harms way. Somehow I think they would prefer when that line catches some shrapnel that it spills steam rather than liquid sodium. Our navy is obsessive about damage control. (And clearly the Russians are not--otherwise they would not have lost the Moskova. It sank long enough after the hit that it had to be a damage control failure.)

Yeah, maybe. I rather doubt that a live steam leak in a confined space is particularly fun to try to deal with.

Live steam would not be fun. Flaming sodium would be even more not fun.

And once you've fixed your system you can replace the water and continue. (Nuclear powered ships have distillers anyway.) No replacing the sodium.

Liquid sodium has some pretty big downsides for the navy.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

A big boost for a climate solution: electricity made from the heat of the Earth

One method of making electricity cleanly to address climate change has been quietly advancing and just hit a milestone.

apnews.com

Horizontal drilling for geothermal.
It complements wind and solar for when the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine because word has it the earth is always hot.

Technology - Fervo Energy

Our breakthrough technology leverages over a decade of innovation in drilling and production from modern oil and gas development, leading to major

fervoenergy.com

California Energy Commission Chair David Hochschild said the state is committed to clean, zero-carbon electricity. He said geothermal complements wind and solar farms by providing steady power when it’s not windy or sunny, and that is key to ensuring reliability as the state cuts fossil fuels.

Geothermal does not complement wind and solar. It is a 24/7 energy source. Be great if they can up scale it. We certainly have some warm places underground in the west. They also happen to be large National Parks as well.

But there's not that much heat down there. In the big picture geothermal will be small even if it can be widely used in niche situations like Iceland.

And there's a downside I wouldn't have thought of: We have some local opposition to geothermal--because they expect it would wreck the hot springs in the area.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Do you see this, Swizzle, from NASA? Can you really not process the meaning of this? Or do you think this is “fake news” because NASA is part of the “deep state”?

View attachment 46570

I think @TSwizzle may have missed your post, pood, since he has not responded.
Or perhaps there’s just nothing he can say about this:
View attachment 46585

You did it as a .jpeg. The original was .webp and the board doesn't inline that.

 

[bilby]

The military has another reason for a PWR design: Military stuff is meant to go in harms way. Somehow I think they would prefer when that line catches some shrapnel that it spills steam rather than liquid sodium. Our navy is obsessive about damage control. (And clearly the Russians are not--otherwise they would not have lost the Moskova. It sank long enough after the hit that it had to be a damage control failure.)

Yeah, maybe. I rather doubt that a live steam leak in a confined space is particularly fun to try to deal with.

Live steam would not be fun. Flaming sodium would be even more not fun.

And once you've fixed your system you can replace the water and continue. (Nuclear powered ships have distillers anyway.) No replacing the sodium.

Liquid sodium has some pretty big downsides for the navy.

Sure. But naval vessels nevertheless carry plenty of stuff that is seriously hazardous, when the mission calls for it.

Munitions are dangerous. Rocket propellants are dangerous. Aviation fuel is dangerous. If a sodium cooled reactor had some particular advantage over a PWR for naval use, they wouldn't resile from it.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

The military has another reason for a PWR design: Military stuff is meant to go in harms way. Somehow I think they would prefer when that line catches some shrapnel that it spills steam rather than liquid sodium. Our navy is obsessive about damage control. (And clearly the Russians are not--otherwise they would not have lost the Moskova. It sank long enough after the hit that it had to be a damage control failure.)

Yeah, maybe. I rather doubt that a live steam leak in a confined space is particularly fun to try to deal with.

Live steam would not be fun. Flaming sodium would be even more not fun.

And once you've fixed your system you can replace the water and continue. (Nuclear powered ships have distillers anyway.) No replacing the sodium.

Liquid sodium has some pretty big downsides for the navy.

Sure. But naval vessels nevertheless carry plenty of stuff that is seriously hazardous, when the mission calls for it.

Munitions are dangerous. Rocket propellants are dangerous. Aviation fuel is dangerous. If a sodium cooled reactor had some particular advantage over a PWR for naval use, they wouldn't resile from it.

Are we concerned about our domestic nuclear power plants going to war at sea at some point? I honestly think that is unlikely. If it gets that bad, the Malls would go first.

 

[pood]

You did it as a .jpeg. The original was .webp and the board doesn't inline that.

I was wondering why it did not show. Thanks.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Extremely rare tropical storm develops out in Atlantic in June. Forecast is mixed as to whether it becomes a major hurricane as the water conditions are absurdly good for intensification. Very very early for June. Yes, it is almost July, but it is very rare for July too. The good news is SW California looks like it will be unharmed due to the storm's anticipated trajectory.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

The military has another reason for a PWR design: Military stuff is meant to go in harms way. Somehow I think they would prefer when that line catches some shrapnel that it spills steam rather than liquid sodium. Our navy is obsessive about damage control. (And clearly the Russians are not--otherwise they would not have lost the Moskova. It sank long enough after the hit that it had to be a damage control failure.)

Yeah, maybe. I rather doubt that a live steam leak in a confined space is particularly fun to try to deal with.

Live steam would not be fun. Flaming sodium would be even more not fun.

And once you've fixed your system you can replace the water and continue. (Nuclear powered ships have distillers anyway.) No replacing the sodium.

Liquid sodium has some pretty big downsides for the navy.

Sure. But naval vessels nevertheless carry plenty of stuff that is seriously hazardous, when the mission calls for it.

Munitions are dangerous. Rocket propellants are dangerous. Aviation fuel is dangerous. If a sodium cooled reactor had some particular advantage over a PWR for naval use, they wouldn't resile from it.

Are we concerned about our domestic nuclear power plants going to war at sea at some point? I honestly think that is unlikely. If it gets that bad, the Malls would go first.

No, why the navy trains people on PWR reactors. Civilian industry likes to get pre-trained people from the military rather than do their own training.