Quaise Energy wants to dig the world's deepest hole

[saor]

must.resist.yo.mamma.jokes...

 

[Petec]

My mind boggles at the technology required, but it's still easier and cheaper than building Dyson Spheres.

 

[acidrain]

If it works and is managed properly but that will unlikely happen if it does work as everyone will then want it.

Drawing too much heat will start a cooling effect in the core and this will be bad news for the planet.

 

[ThinkCentre]

Imagine you could replace a pipe that makes a U-turn down such a hole. You can replace your geyser with it!

 

[dj_jyno]

After the steam comes the magma right?

 

[ilikepi]

if you want to dig yourself a really deep hole, just put a white face on your shampoo commercial :-D no drilling required

 

[Pak Fa Fui]

must.resist.yo.mamma.jokes...

Still not as deep as I put it in yo mama

 

[Swa]

Just dig some pit toilets in Nkandla, the BS will be enough.

 

[wizardofid]

If it works and is managed properly but that will unlikely happen if it does work as everyone will then want it.

Drawing too much heat will start a cooling effect in the core and this will be bad news for the planet.

Wait, what ? You have watched too much scifi. You do know at any given time there are about 26 known volcanic eruptions a day, releasing an average 25 megawatts of thermal energy. That is 650 megawatts these volcanoes are releasing. With this project having several drill sites with an estimated 100 megawatt output combined. You aren't even remotely close to what the earth outputs.

Ignoring the fact that moon has enormous gravitational pull on the earth as well.

Tidal power from the moon: 3.2 TW
Total global electricity consumption: 3-4 TW
Geothermal heat flow from the earth's interior: 30 TW
Total sunlight hitting Earth (outside the atmosphere): ~175,000 TW


one terrawatt is equal 1 trillion watts.

So no, it won't, you need to be able to sap a tremendous amount of thermal energy .......100 megawatts combined from several drill sites isn't even remotely close.........

 

[acidrain]

Wait, what ? You have watched too much scifi. You do know at any given time there are about 26 known volcanic eruptions a day, releasing an average 25 megawatts of thermal energy. That is 650 megawatts these volcanoes are releasing.
....

So no, it won't, you need to be able to sap a tremendous amount of thermal energy .......100 megawatts combined from several drill sites isn't even remotely close.........

Yes and I never stated that this would happen from one 100MW drill site.

 

[Tim_vb]

Wait, what ? You have watched too much scifi. You do know at any given time there are about 26 known volcanic eruptions a day, releasing an average 25 megawatts of thermal energy. That is 650 megawatts these volcanoes are releasing. With this project having several drill sites with an estimated 100 megawatt output combined. You aren't even remotely close to what the earth outputs.

Ignoring the fact that moon has enormous gravitational pull on the earth as well.

Tidal power from the moon: 3.2 TW
Total global electricity consumption: 3-4 TW
Geothermal heat flow from the earth's interior: 30 TW
Total sunlight hitting Earth (outside the atmosphere): ~175,000 TW


one terrawatt is equal 1 trillion watts.

So no, it won't, you need to be able to sap a tremendous amount of thermal energy .......100 megawatts combined from several drill sites isn't even remotely close.........

25 MW is peanuts

under water volcanoes eruptions deep in our oceans are capable of extremely powerful releases of energy, at a rate high enough to power the whole of the United States, according to research published today.

 

[chrisc]

If you drill a hole, the material the drill displaces has to be disposed of and usually comes to the surface. How is the rock from 50km down going to be handled?

The actual science of the drilling mechanism has been explained, but where does the material from ultra-deep shafts end up?

Last question: What brings the heat to the surface such that it is still hot enough to create steam from water

 

[konfab]

Just a very expensive way to use nuclear power.

 

[killerbyte]

I raise you your scary movie and show you how it would actually save the world instead (just ignore the fact that the world was about to end due to human stupidity in the first place)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f4/The_Core_poster.jpg

I really love that movie.

 

[wizardofid]

Yes and I never stated that this would happen from one 100MW drill site.

And you aren't listening/reading either, the 100MW is from several drill sites in the area combined. How big do you think this hole is going to be. ?

This happens to be the size of the superdeep borehole.




Secondly, on the ocean floor the earth's crust averages about 5km thick, on land about 30km, on some mountain ranges as much as 100km thick, and then you have to travel +- several thousand km to get to the core.The formation and generation of magma only starts at around 200km deep and up to 250km based on water traces. The earth's crust heat is derived from, convection, advection, conduction and the decay of radioactive isotopes. With the exception of decaying radio active materials and pressure, the crust isn't generating the large portion of the heat is has. So the actual heat you will be siphoning off at 20km is several 100km or thousands of km's from the actual heat generating source, you aren't impacting the source in any way.


Imagine if you will, you light a gas flame, as you know heat rises and harvest the heat from the flame, a foot or two above the fame. Does the temperature of the flame change.No, you aren't impacting or interacting directly with the flame.This is similar to heat you will be dissipating from the crust, the actual flame that generates the heat is several 100km's down or more.Additionally geothermal energy is a renewable source. Yes the earth's core is gradually cooling down and we will eventually end up like mars in about 7.5 billion years, however the sun will have spent all of it's fuel in 4.5 billion long before the earth cooled down. Additionally as the sun ages it is going to expand and swallow up mercury, Venus and earth, but not before it boils off earth's atmosphere and oceans.

In other words earth will be dead long, long before the heat generating engines of earth stops. So no you aren't even remotely close enough to the actual source of energy to make any sort of meaningful impact, even if you wanted to.

Like I said stop watching scifi movies.