You’ve heard of geothermal energy — it’s touted as a clean alternative. You’ve also heard of fracking, which is … not always thought of that way.
One creates energy from the earth’s heat. The other became popular in the gas revolution of the 2010s when we figured out we could get energy from drilling shale. What if I told you the two could go hand in hand?
A new report from the International Energy Association says there’s enough untapped geothermal energy to satisfy the electricity demands of India and the U.S. combined. Yet it’s hydraulic drilling — also known as fracking — that could help find it.
This method is essentially fracking, but instead of capturing gas to burn, it’s capturing heat to turn into electricity.
“It’s simply adapting the technology from shale oil drilling to use it in geothermal,” said Roland Horne, a professor of energy science and engineering at Stanford University. He said there’s increasing interest in using fracking equipment to do this. “It’s just sort of a new way of doing what is actually a rather old idea,” he said.
The reason it’s gaining traction now is because reaching geothermal heat is becoming more affordable in more places, said Brent Wanner at the IEA, which released the new analysis.
“The oil and gas industry has been going deeper and deeper, and they’ve been able to do that in shorter times and for lower costs,” he said.
He said the concerns about deep drilling — like causing earthquakes and disrupting habitats — still hold here. But geothermal energy that’s extracted doesn’t get burned and release carbon.
It also solves a problem that wind and solar can’t, said Zeyneb Magavi, executive director of the thermal energy nonprofit called HEET.
“Where is that non-intermittent energy supply? Geothermal has the potential to be that answer,” she said.
Magavi said now that the technology has advanced and we can afford to use it, the biggest challenge is adoption — including permits and investment commitments.
