eli5: Why geothermal energy is not very efficent? If we dug much Much deeper could we gather massive amounts of energy because of being closer to the core? (I saw how close we are currently to it so I don’t think its happening anytime soon)
In: Earth Science
Could you elaborate on to what you are referring? Geothermal heating with heatpumps is **incredibly** efficient. Costs are significant because digging holes isn’t cheap, but you’ll habe trouble finding a way of heating (and cooling for that matter!) a home more energy-efficiently than with a geothermal heatpump.
I guess if you actually wanted to run a *generator* with geothermal heat your plans are limited by whether you live near a tectonic fault or not – you’d need a volcanic vent.
One of the main issues with geothermal energy is the relatively low temperature of steam produced. For a number of reasons ranging from pressure limits to flow restrictions, the steam coming out of a geothermal borehole is generally colder than what a boiler can achieve — and it’s the energy beyond that required for boiling that can be extracted by turbines, so hotter steam can have energy extracted more efficiently before it condenses again.
Getting close to the core isn’t possible the deepest wells and tunnels have barely scratched the surface of the Earth a lot of the heat near the surface of the Earth is generated by rocks like granite having uranium decaying in it basically powering geothermal energy on nuclear reactions.
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