CNNMoney.com discovers geothermal
In an article published today shows that the world is slowly waking up to geothermal:
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Old Faithful and expensive contraptions in the basement that never really worked – that’s what many people think of when they think geothermal energy.
But thanks to advances in technology, a better political climate and rising electricity prices, geothermal is quickly losing its status as renewable energy’s most unloved sector. In fact, investment in the sector jumped nearly fourfold over the last two years, to about $100 million last year.
“This resource is available, and it could develop to 30 times what is currently used,” said Curt Robinson, executive director of the Geothermal Resources Council, an educational and professional organization.
There are two issues with this article, one, there are enormous hydrothermal systems available to harvest (if only there was an exploration program to look for them) – HDR isn’t the only growth area. And two, utilities are falling over themselves to buy geothermal energy to meet RPS needs. Why? Because it’s baseload power friends and it’s the only renewable other than hydro-electric power that can claim to be baseload.
It is nice to see the world waking up a bit, solar and wind are great, but they can’t (and won’t) solve the problem on their own.
