2/3 of Americans: buying fuel efficient car patriotic

David:

Good point. Iceland has a real surplus of geothermal energy. Hard to believe half a century ago they were choking on coal dust.

I've often wondered why we can't do more with geothermal as we have quite a few natural hot springs scattered around the country. Note: by "geothermal" in this situation I'm not referring to geothermal heat pumps, but the saturated steam you get from natural hot springs.

In the case of Iceland, I'm starting to wonder if it wouldn't be more efficient for them to have pure electric vehicles? They could still electrolosize hydrogen from water and export that.

 

actually, most of our geysers and hot springs are centered in one area and that is yellowstone which is, as it should be, off limits to development of this kind.

unfortunately, we dont really have a lot of good supplies like iceland does. small areas here and there which wont work.

what we need is areas of a few hundred acres with several tapable areas to work.

hawaii does come to mind but melted rock is a bit tougher to manage.

 

David:

Sorry about that. I was watching a blurb on the boob tube around a year ago about the geothermal thing, and was under the impression that except for the Central Plains there were hot springs everywhere.

Another good reason not to watch the tube: they usually get it wrong.

 

Large quantities of energy are measured in giga- or teraJoules. One calorie equals 4.15 Joules. One Watt equals one Joule per second.

Geothermal energy is readily available in some areas - the Cascades, Long Valley Geothermal Resource Area (eastern Sierra Nevada), Cochella Valley (Salton Sea), the Geysers (NW California) and other areas. Geothermal energy is sustainable as long as the field is not overdeveloped and water is reinjected into the field. Wells are typically 3000+ meters deep. Water vapor comes out of the ground at many degrees of superheat (above the boiling point of water, 100°C) and is generally contaminated with arsenic, mercury, sulfur and other elements. Those who make use of geothermal energy must proprerly deal with both the contaminants and know how to handle fluctuating temperatures and pressures. UNOCAL has developed geothermal resource fields around the world (California and the Phillipines).

Communities with access to geothermal heat use the heat in a closed system under roads and sidewalks to eliminate snow clearing (Brigham Young University UT, Mammoth Lakes CA, Iceland).

A better alternative is using photovoltaic panels to generate electricity and split water into oxygen and hydrogen. The PV panels do multiple duty: putting electricity into the grid and splitting water. While hydrogen generated is small per PV panel, collectively a large amount can be generated, compressed and stored for later use. Every roof offers space for PV panels (business, schools, churches, residences).