Boof - GeoDynamics isn't stuffing anything down the hole except for water - and they want that to come back up again.
If they are asking for taxpayers handouts (and I haven't seen any reports of this - I have seen them raise plenty of money from the capital markets though) then your other comment would make sense - but as it is what are you suggesting is withheld from them in a year or two ?
You seem to have an irrational dislike of geothermal power.
I agree HFR isn't proven yet - but it doesn't have any meaningful downside that I'm aware of if it can be made to work...
I'll reiterate some points that have been made before. Firstly HFR has less than half the temperature difference (say 200K) of other thermal plant hence lower Carnot efficiency. The rock cools so new holes and fracture zones have to be made within piping distance of the generator. So far the world has only a handful of working Kalina plants. Drilling a 4km deep hole in sandstone then granite must create an energy debt of hundreds of megawatt hours. Repeat every year or two. There is little control over lateral water flows which could be too big or too small, and I suggest plastic creep will be a factor. The mean non-volcanic convective heat gradient from the Earth's core is something like 0.2 w/m2 as opposed to 1000 w/m2 radiant for desert noon sun. The steam contains some radon from radioactive decay which is hazardous if inhaled. Away from the Artesian Basin top-up water will be at a premium.
Therefore I'm calling it a pipe dream both literally and metaphorically. OTOH I believe coupled wind and pumped hydro could make a true renewable baseload system, albeit limited.
As yet all of your objections are just as speculative as the hopes of the promoters - I haven't seen anything showing that a system of maybe 10 drill holes within a reasonable distance of one another can't be reused and form the basis of a continuously operating plant...
Boof - GeoDynamics isn't stuffing anything down the hole except for water - and they want that to come back up again.
If they are asking for taxpayers handouts (and I haven't seen any reports of this - I have seen them raise plenty of money from the capital markets though) then your other comment would make sense - but as it is what are you suggesting is withheld from them in a year or two ?
You seem to have an irrational dislike of geothermal power.
I agree HFR isn't proven yet - but it doesn't have any meaningful downside that I'm aware of if it can be made to work...
I'll reiterate some points that have been made before. Firstly HFR has less than half the temperature difference (say 200K) of other thermal plant hence lower Carnot efficiency. The rock cools so new holes and fracture zones have to be made within piping distance of the generator. So far the world has only a handful of working Kalina plants. Drilling a 4km deep hole in sandstone then granite must create an energy debt of hundreds of megawatt hours. Repeat every year or two. There is little control over lateral water flows which could be too big or too small, and I suggest plastic creep will be a factor. The mean non-volcanic convective heat gradient from the Earth's core is something like 0.2 w/m2 as opposed to 1000 w/m2 radiant for desert noon sun. The steam contains some radon from radioactive decay which is hazardous if inhaled. Away from the Artesian Basin top-up water will be at a premium.
Therefore I'm calling it a pipe dream both literally and metaphorically. OTOH I believe coupled wind and pumped hydro could make a true renewable baseload system, albeit limited.
As yet all of your objections are just as speculative as the hopes of the promoters - I haven't seen anything showing that a system of maybe 10 drill holes within a reasonable distance of one another can't be reused and form the basis of a continuously operating plant...