U.S. Sitting On Geothermal Jackpot
The U.S. Department of Energy reports that American households spend, on average, about $2,000 a year on their energy needs. The lion’s share of that cost? Heating. In fact, 43% of our annual energy expenditures is simply on the heating of our homes and the water that we use. A byproduct of all of this residential and commercial heating is the EPA estimated 27,300 pounds of CO2 annually emitted into the atmosphere per home. Southern Methodist University’s Geothermal Laboratory has recently released a resource map, funded by Google, that shows that geothermal energy is a possibility almost everywhere in the continental United States. In fact, according to their report, the U.S. is sitting on almost 10 times the recoverable energy deposits from geothermal heating than what is available to the U.S. today in coal-produced energy.
Given the strong tectonic activity in the western portion of the country, particularly west of the Rockies, that area has always been seen as a resource-rich area for geothermal energy production. The east coast, on the other hand, has long been thought to be relatively week for that type of sustainable energy. However, the SMU map clearly shows that the eastern two thirds of the U.S. are actually hotter than some of the western areas.
The study, which shows relative “hotness” of possible geothermal drill sites across the U.S., shows a heat map of areas 3.5 kilometers to 9.5 kilometers depth, for the practical application of drilling for geothermal energy.
The temperature signatures across the U.S. show an incredible wealth of possible geothermal energy use, a renewable resource that has almost zero environmental impact, since it’s essentially using the earth’s center to heat water and air in residential and commercial areas. From the amount of recoverable energy to ease of consumer use to gas emissions; geothermal heating is a far superior energy source to oil, coal, or gas. The only possible drawback is the up front cost of drilling for geothermal heat, where roughly 3/5 capital up front may be necessary to bore a hole and must be completely scrapped if sufficient heat can’t be produced.
However, the industry is still developing, and technology is leapfrogging with concern to how adaptable and quickly deployable these kinds of drilling set-ups can be made. With public investment, as well as private investors like Google Inc., geothermal heating could dramatically reduce municipal costs, energy grid instability, and the U.S.’s relative carbon footprint.
