Harnessing energy from the rocks
The United States could generate as much electricity by 2050 as that flowing today from all of the country’s nuclear power plants by developing technologies that tap heat locked in deep layers of granite, according to a new study commissioned by the energy department.
There are already dozens of power plants worldwide that have long exploited hot spots of geothermal energy to drive steam turbines, but they are restricted to a few areas.
The new report, published online on Monday, focuses on a process that it said could affordably harvest heat locked in deep layers of granite that exist almost everywhere on earth.
The technique, called enhanced geothermal, involves drilling several holes — some two to three miles deep — into granite that has been held at chicken-roasting temperatures, around 400 degrees or more, by insulating layers of rock above.
Source:The Times Of India