Drilling deep holes and making bombs

March 15th 2009. Join the Group Read. Chapters 14 and 15. Geothermal and Public Services

(Instructions on how to join are at the bottom of the original post)

It matters where the energy is: lots of heat just 100km under our feet doesn't help much although manufacturing earthquakes might, just a bit. We're not Iceland which can rely on geothermal heat closer to the surface to operate huge aluminium smelting plants. So we can (almost) forget geothermal. Public "services" like a well-equipped army or well-heated academics also consume. Maybe some demand should be counted as production if it can be sustainably avoided by our efforts?

Next week is the first chapter looking at the overall balance of demand to potential renewable supply.

About the author
Tony Curzon Price is openDemocracy's Editor-in-Chief

March 15th 2009. Join the Group Read. Chapters 14 and 15. Geothermal and Public Services

(Instructions on how to join are at the bottom of the original post)

It matters where the energy is: lots of heat just 100km under our feet doesn't help much although manufacturing earthquakes might, just a bit. We're not Iceland which can rely on geothermal heat closer to the surface to operate huge aluminium smelting plants. So we can (almost) forget geothermal. Public "services" like a well-equipped army or well-heated academics also consume. Maybe some demand should be counted as production if it can be sustainably avoided by our efforts?

Next week is the first chapter looking at the overall balance of demand to potential renewable supply.

This article is copyright Tony Curzon Price and openDemocracy.

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