A few thousand feet below Texas’s sunbaked surface, sedimentary rock and gravel are superheated to hundreds of degrees by the earth’s magma.
Texas is uniquely positioned, with relatively shallow hotspots dotted around the state and an industry experienced with drilling, the report concludes. But will our leaders nurture the nascent industry, or will they see a threat to the fossil fuel industry?
The report’s authors and the Texas Geothermal Energy Alliance try to position the industry as an oil and gas ally. To be sure, the companies that extract fossil fuels possess the skills and technology to harness geothermal resources in many of the same places.
Oil and gas operators, though, make money by selling hydrocarbon molecules, whereas this new industry sells heat.
Geothermal energy producers pipe water around the earth’s subterranean furnace to produce steam that can provide heat or spin electric turbines. The energy released does not contribute to climate change.
So far, geothermal’s biggest problem is cost. Only a few parts of the world have shallow geothermal resources that are easy to access. Going deeper is expensive, and higher temperatures create complications.
Oil field service companies hold the answers.
For the past 20 years, drillers have perfected drill bits and pipes that can endure high temperatures….
