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Geothermal: Saving the Best - to Last!

Mon, 22 November, 2021

Have you driven around the country and seen wind-turbines standing stationary on a windy day? Have you noticed the lack of livestock or crops in fields now covered with photovoltaic panels? Have you seen the many thousands of geothermal installations providing heating to Britain’s homes?

I rather suspect your answers to the above questions will be yes, yes and no!

Have you looked at the efficiency figures for wind, solar and geothermal? Have you considered the end-of-life impacts of each technology? Most people won’t have and why should they?

Our governments last for four years each time and weaponise the energy crisis that we are in, buying votes through rhetoric and hot air.

Stare at your feet and realise that decarbonising almost 90% of our heating requirements and 15% of our power requirements, lies directly below you!

From shallow heat to deep energy resources, I believe that geothermal will save our planet and last until the Earth’s core cools to the point where all life will end as we know it.

Take a few minutes to think about how our planet works! Think of all the heat within the layers of our earth and then call your MP to see why the Government is not making this its number one priority.

GEO (earth) THERMAL (heat) seems pretty straightforward doesn’t it? And, as all of the world’s population lives on the surface of our planet, it’s reasonable to assume that we all have access to geothermal resources at varying levels.

So, why are we not exploiting this energy resource, especially in areas where we use more energy to heat our homes than we do for cooking and appliances?

Because geothermal energy’s greatest strength is also its greatest weakness – out of sight, out of mind!

Politicians need you to vote them into a job on a regular basis, so they back schemes that are highly visual, without anyone pausing to think, “is this really the future?”

Geothermal is highly versatile, it can provide heat, it can store heat, it can turn turbines for electricity, and it can be used for cooling. It is low maintenance, it is low carbon, and it can even make use of all the space created underground by the removal of coal, gas and oil. What’s not to like?

Add to this that not a soul on this planet is very far from a geothermal resource of some form and you start to understand, Geothermal: Saving the best – to last.

 

  • Kevin Mallin, Managing Director, Geolorn Ltd.

 

The Geo-Drill project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 815319