In the year 1904, Italian Mayor Piero Ginori Conti invented the first geothermal electric power plant in which steam was used to generate the power. He lit 4 bulbs and demonstrated that heat from the earth can be used for generating electricity. 1904 it was a meagre few watts and now the world geothermal (hydrothermal) electricity generation is exceeding 12000 MWe!!
This was followed by the first geothermal power plant in USA in 1922 with an installed capacity of 250 kilowatts. It was shut down due to technical glitches. Subsequently in 1960 the Pacific Gas and Electric started large scale geothermal power plant, generating 11 MWe. From 1904, the geothermal industry grew from a few watts to 12000 MWe ( geothermal heat is not included). If those inventors and scientists thought that geothermal is very expensive and can produce only a few watts of electricity, the world would have come to a stand still. Some of the so “called advisor” should take advise from the facts and advise the oil companies accordingly.
Science grows……….it was satellites initially circulating the globe, then came the animals and finally man could land on the Moon!. Countries did not sit back due to high cost of such projects. Had the govt. appointed so called “advisers” to advise them on the future of science, the world would have come to a stand still. In fact advisors should be young and dynamic and should have a vision!!! From Moon, today scientists are thinking of Mars and other planets. These experiments and trials are expensive ……no doubt…but they are not going to eat away the salaries of advisors.
The Soultz experiment took several years to create heat exchanger in granites…..the out come is the amount of information the scientists gathered …..it is enormous ( this is true with Fenton Hill experiment too). It was expensive then …….Thanks…..there was no advisor sat on the board of these projects!! Similarly the Cooper basin experiment……it is not the amount of power that was generated and cost. It is the technology. Yes they are expensive today and down the years…they will be cost effective. Is it not true with oil industry? Oil simply did not flow with one bore well!! True with shale gas.
Tomorrow ‘s world demand is going to be fresh water and energy. Fossil fuels will dwindle at some point of time in our life time. Countries are going to fight for fresh water. Desalination is the future. Today desalination of seawater is expensive…but it is question of do or die. Thanks…no advisors advised the govts of Arab countries to stop desalination process using fossil fuel because it is expensive!! Vision is what one needs to meet the future demand. Like Sun, the only perennial energy source is Earth. Hydrothermal systems are site specific while granite are there everywhere!!. The MIT scientists sat together with a vision and brought out the 2006 EGS report for the world to read and digest. We want the world to have equal opportunities with respect to fresh water and energy…clean energy. In future conventional drilling technology will be replaced by plasma drilling….what for the advisors are appointed?…to advise the firms on what the future looks like in terms of cost, technology and environment.