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Exposed geothermal resources only. We don't want to go drilling holes in the earth, creating heat and energy, that then serves as a heatsink to cool the earth's core.
Our plant is unique in the geothermal activity is what sustains life, recycles water eventually, and generates our electro magnetic field. Without it we would be a dried up cold lifeless rock.

There's not enough exposed geothermal resources on Earth for it to even be considered a viable option to humanity. Sure it may benefit some regions and populations, but not most of the world.

Tenpoundbass says

Exposed geothermal resources only. We don't want to go drilling holes in the earth, creating heat and energy, that then serves as a heatsink to cool the earth's core.
Our plant is unique in the geothermal activity is what sustains life, recycles water eventually, and generates our electro magnetic field. Without it we would be a dried up cold lifeless rock.

There's not enough exposed geothermal resources on Earth for it to even be considered a viable option to humanity. Sure it may benefit some regions and populations, but not most of the world.

Geothermal may be practically infinite. What causes the heat? It could be nuclear reaction.

I honestly think our best bet for unlimited energy is the sun, and nuclear reactions with thorium though. I do not think fusion is possible on Earth anyhow.

That is a fear based article. I don't believe any of that rubbish.

richwicks says

I do not think fusion is possible on Earth anyhow.

Happens with every H-bomb detonation. You smart people just have to figure out how to slow it down a bit.

richwicks says

Geothermal may be practically infinite. What causes the heat? It could be nuclear reaction.

Only planets with a moon have a molten core, gravitational drag causes the heat.
The same thing that keeps the sun burning, and the center of the galaxy super convection seem like there's a massive blackhole. In reality it's a super heated axle of wheel that is grossly out of balance. Trust the science. The whole purpose of ball bearings and grease seals is to reduce friction on rotating objects. It boggles my mind that there are so many spinning disks or wheels for a lose description, and every factors in everything for the cause of super heated centers and cores, other than gravitational friction.
A Star doesn't even need its own mass, the Universe is so full of matter and dust, and stars at the center of every galaxy is the ultimate resting place for every particle that did not bombard a planet as it traversed the planetary field to hit the star, where as the others that did not make it added mass to the planets they bombarded. 6 out of 10 particles to make it to the sun, where there is so much heat and pressure it instantly disintegrates, and each individual atom is split, where it does not escape the gravity of the Star, quintillions of dust particles hitting it every minute and gorillions of atoms created in the fission reaction adding to the super mass of the star.
The Universe is nothing but a huge electric motor, and so is most every orbital effected large mass.

Tenpoundbass says

Only planets with a moon have a molten core, gravitational drag causes the heat.

That what I thought as well, the moon flexing the earth is responsible for the heat. Then I saw something recently about volcanos on Venus and a molten core.

Tenpoundbass says

The Universe is nothing but a huge electric motor, and so is most every orbital effected large mass.

But expertly designed to support life on this planet.

HeadSet says

That what I thought as well, the moon flexing the earth is responsible for the heat. Then I saw something recently about volcanos on Venus and a molten core.

Well Venus is right next to the sun, billions of years in the toaster has got to do something.

I call bullshit on the Venus probes, if there were so many probes to Venus, then why was touchdown on Mars with balloon bags such a huge deal. How were we landing on Venus? Don't tell me moon style articulated controlled landings. If we were such experts at landing Venus, then Mars should have been a successful sample gathering and return mission.

I believe Venus would have the strongest gravity in the Solar system pound for pound. Being so close to the sun, I believe the combined gravity would be felt.
Venus rotates opposite of Earth and most every other planet in the Solar System, what strange forces would create such an orbit, when the rest of the planets rotate counterclockwise?

It takes 243 Earth days to complete an orbit, 122 days faster than Earth, spite having a slower rotation in the opposite direction. It should be completing an orbit almost half that. Could it be, it's slowing down, and one day will start going back the other direction?

I don't even know how we could possibly land a probe on Venus with it rotating in the opposite direction. That means our craft would never reach equilibrium with the planets orbit, and when the lander lands, it's crashing in at the speed of the lander plus the speed of Venus at a head on collision. As far as I know, we can't send a rocket in space against our orbit, we use the centrifugal force of gravity to help compel our rockets into orbit. It just doesn't add up that we sent probes to Venus, and meanwhile Mars is as much of a crappy C grade movie those missions have been.

Tenpoundbass says

I call bullshit on the Venus probes,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_missions_to_Venus

The Soviet Union's Venera 8 landed on Venus in 1972. USA's Pioneer Venus 2 landed on Venus in 1978 and transmitted data for about 60 minutes after the landing.

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I would focus on how well buildings are insulated and how much they take advantage of solar energy such as using passive solar heating like storing heat using "thermal mass".

It could be anything that can absorb solar energy (or solar radiation) like furniture, walls, and even containers filled with water.

I would try to put a small wood stove near the middle of the home in northern Europe areas.

Ultimately it comes down to BTU's per hour generated within the building to maintain at least 60 degrees inside, as well as how much of those BTU's escape the building every hour.

Tenpoundbass says

I call bullshit on the Venus probes, if there were so many probes to Venus, then why was touchdown on Mars with balloon bags such a huge deal. How were we landing on Venus? Don't tell me moon style articulated controlled landings. If we were such experts at landing Venus, then Mars should have been a successful sample gathering and return mission.

Mars barely has an atmosphere, so you have to deal with it but it's not enough to slow you down much. Venus has such a thick atmosphere, that as you approach the last mile above 'sea level', you don't even need a parachute at that point, the atmosphere is like being 1000m under the ocean on Earth. Venera 9 ditched the parachute at 50km and glided down just from the pressure at less than 20mph.

beershrine says

That is a fear based article. I don't believe any of that rubbish.

Making a nuclear weapon is easy, doing contained fusion in such a way that is able to be self sustaining (i.e. being able to harvest the energy produced, and using that to continue the reaction) I think is impossible.

Fusion is said to always be just 10 years away, and it's been that way since I was in diapers.

It may be just as well though. If we get fusion, that's basically unlimited energy, and just imagine what people would do with literally unlimited energy?

We should be working on Thorium nuclear reactors. This is a safe technology, it's IMPOSSIBLE to have meltdowns, and thorium is plentiful. It's around $30 per kilogram currently. It's basically a worthless metal in every way, but it could be a tremendous energy source.

ad says

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_missions_to_Venus

The Soviet Union's Venera 8 landed on Venus in 1972. USA's Pioneer Venus 2 landed on Venus in 1978 and transmitted data for about 60 minutes after the landing.

I question any technology volleys between Soviet Russia and USA during the cold war era. It was more blatant Tech Propaganda than we get today with the Space Elevator, Nano Robots and stupid silly crap like that.

I think the secret to unlimited energy is to somehow be found in gravity.

GNL says

I think the secret to unlimited energy is to somehow be found in gravity.

It would be possible with tidal pools, however, the result would be to slow the Earth's rotation until the moon was tidally locked with the rotation of the Earth. We'd end up with days that are more than a month long.

Completely unlimited energy would be the destruction of the world I think. Given unlimited energy, would could completely pave the world. If energy was truly unlimited, we'd likely end up destroying the planet. We could make cities that were entirely indoors, with a billion inhabitants, 1000 stories high. It would be Issac Asimov's Caves of Steel or even worse, Trantor, which I think turned out to be Earth, the entire planet a single city - everything destroyed except man and the things that fed man.

Ever read 2430 A.D. by Asimov? It was about a future Earth in which one man runs that world's last zoo despite the pressure he's under to get rid of it, so a dozen more people could live and the resources for the last animals could be used for the additional human beings that could live, if the zoo was terminated. The zoo consists of some dogs, rabbits, cats, mice, and other common animals. Everything else is just humans and stuff like plankton that feeds the trillions of teeming humans. I think that would be our future with absolutely unlimited energy resources.

We have unlimited energy, it bombards the earth all day every day. The plants and other photosynthesizers take advantage of it every day, and so do we. And that doesn’t even factor in atomic energy.

Scarcity is generally a factor of greed/distribution. We have enough energy, food, water, space etc to support at least 4 times the current population of the planet earth.

richwicks says

I do not think fusion is possible on Earth anyhow.

Just curious, you're about my age, and I remember the Archimedes Plutonium newsgroup postings. Did you ever come across them (he was banned BTW)?

I'm not saying he was correct, it's just that the claims of "no nuclear waste" and "much safer than fission" are a complete crock of shit. All current designs (including the NIF) use D-T fusion, which spits neutrons out like nobody's business. The entire containment chamber will be completely irradiated by neutron bombardment and be chock full of short half-life radionuclides. What if containment breaks? Well, the 100+ million degree plasma will simply "dissipate." Guess how hot a prompt fission nuclear bomb is - about 100 million degrees. It's a pure sham - it's neither cleaner, nor safer than fission.

The only way to largely eliminate the irradiated waste aspect is the Helium-3 + Helium-2 (or Helium-3 + Helium 3) reactions, which releases positively charged protons. These protons can be guided electromagnetically to reduce wanton irradiation. Time to start surface strip mining the moon.

cT, thanks for the link to Eavor. If anyone is interested, this is probably the best page that explains how their geothermal system works. In summary, they drill down 1.5 miles and then drill a bunch of lateral finger wells. They drill a second well similar to the first with a bunch of later fingers that then connect to the first wells laterals to create loop. So extremely precise drilling technology 1.5 miles below the earths surface. These laterals are lined with something they call "rock pipe" (likely proprietary) to create a sealed loop where a heat transfer fluid can be circulated. Cold fluid goes in one well and as it circulates through the laterals, picks up heat from the earth, and is brought to the surface in the other well. Its a closed loop, and, in theory, the fluid circulates naturally do to a thermosiphon effect. The heat can then be used to generate electricity or in commercial heating/cooling applications. There does seem to be a lot of places where things could go horribly wrong (pipes leaking heat transfer fluid comes to mind). They're doing their first commercial project in Germany. Hopefully they can make it work.