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Enough geothermal energy to power the globe -- now that's hot!
8/19/08
Today, as part of our
Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal initiative
, Google.org
announced
more than $10 million in investments and grants in Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) technology. EGS expands the potential of traditional geothermal energy by orders of magnitude. The traditional geothermal approach relies on finding naturally occurring pockets of steam or hot water. The EGS process, by comparison, replicates these conditions by fracturing hot rock, circulating water through the system, and using the resulting steam to produce electricity in a conventional turbine.
EGS has the potential to provide clean renewable electricity 24/7, at a cost cheaper than coal. The ability to produce electricity from geothermal energy has been thought exclusive to locations such as California and Iceland. However EGS could allow us to harness the heat within the earth almost anywhere. To see see the massive size of the US geothermal resource accessible by EGS, check out our
Google Earth layer
. For more on EGS, watch this video, featuring
Dr. Steve Chu
, Director of the
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
, and Dr.
Jefferson Tester
, professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT and lead author of a major recent study on EGS:
Our EGS partners to date include:
AltaRock Energy
: $6.25 million investment to develop innovative technologies to achieve significant cost reductions and improved performance in EGS projects
Potter Drilling
: $4 million investment in two tranches, to develop new approaches to lower the cost and expand the range of deep hard rock drilling, a critical element to large-scale deployment of EGS
Southern Methodist University Geothermal Laboratory
: $489,521 grant to improve understanding of the size and distribution of geothermal energy resources and to update geothermal mapping of North America
Working with
Geodynamics
, one of the world's leading EGS development companies, we modeled Geodynamics' first 50 MW system at the Cooper Basin in SketchUp, Google's 3D modeling technology. To see how EGS works, check out the
animation
of the SketchUp model or
download it
.
EGS is heating up around the world. Australia, Germany, and the European Union are currently leading the technology and commercialization race. All 50 U.S. states, Europe, Russia, China, and India all have substantial thermal resources accessible by EGS.
While the US debates drilling in the ocean for oil, we are focused on drilling for renewable energy - and lots of it - right beneath our feet. A
recent report by MIT
on EGS estimated just 2% of the heat 3 - 10 km below below the continental United States is more than 2,500 times the country's total annual energy use. The United States needs more aggressive government policies to help catch up to other nations, including expanded R&D funding, a national renewable portfolio standard, and reliable tax incentives. For more on our geothermal policy agenda, read this
brief
.
EGS has enormous potential to cleanly address the world's energy challenges. We look forward to continuing our efforts to advance EGS through technology, investment, policy and information.
Posted by Charles Baron, Climate and Energy Team, Google.org
Capitol Hill spotlights energy efficiency
8/1/08
In the 1970s and 1980s, America's push for energy conservation meant "doing less with less" - lowering the thermostat, turning off lights, donning a sweater, and leaving the car in the garage. Following up
his testimony from earlier this month
, Dan Reicher, Google.org's Director of Climate Change and Energy Initiatives, visited Capitol Hill again this week to discuss a new 21st Century approach - harnessing technology to achieve greater energy efficiency and "do
more
with less."
The hearing
, which also featured Ian Bowles, Massachusetts' Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs, focused on ways in which consumers, businesses, and government can work together to achieve greater energy efficiency. Studies have shown that efficiency opportunities can cut global energy demand to less than half of what is projected by 2020.
Dan stressed the need for a new vision for how America generates, transmits, and uses electricity. He noted that the increasing interplay between energy hardware and information software, along with the rise of the Internet and the connectivity it brings, adds to the potential to make and use energy more productively. From smart meters and smart appliances to smart homes and a smart grid, we are poised to significantly advance our ability to monitor and manage energy.
Dan highlighted Google.org's
RechargeIT
initiative and discussed the efficiency advantages of plug-in vehicles. He emphasized how the government could help get more plug-ins on the road by providing financial incentives, investing in our national electricity infrastructure, funding R&D, and modernizing our regulatory system to permit real-time pricing of power.
Dan's other proposals include implementing an Energy Efficiency Resource Standard, which would set efficiency resource targets for electricity and gas suppliers. He also called for increased federal support for weatherizing energy inefficient homes in low-income communities, and for improved financial incentives to encourage private-sector investment in promising clean energy technologies.
Check out Dan's
testimony
and
video
from the hearing.
Posted by Johanna Shelton, Policy Counsel & Legislative Strategist
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