Yotta Joules Is A Lotta Joules

You can’t really blame George Bush.  There are more zeroes in a yotta than George Bush or even Al Gore has fingers and toes. There might be many in Gore’s Tennessee that have sufficient fingers and toes, according to unverified reports, but evem those so blessed have perhaps gotten to wearing shoes which would greatly hamper their math abilities.

You see yotta is the number of joules of dependable, steady electric power that might theoretically be produced from Mother Earth’s own nuclear power plant in the crust of the earth. That is according to the calculations of MIT’s Professor Jon Tester and his panel of experts. Mother’s own heat might be mined without pollution of the atmosphere and poisoning of the earth for eons or a boon to nuclear bombers.

George Bush’s Department of Energy has proposed zeroing out research on an energy source that theoretically could produce thousands of times all the electricity produced today.  Anybody here thought about the potential of geothermal energy, which Prof. Testor probably underestimated?  I mean beyond a handful of us environmental wackos that think maybe we ought to get serious about real solutions.

Very odd thing about geothermal power, the homely stepchild of environmentalists in the U.S..  The U.S. is the world’s largest producer of electric power from geothermal.  The Philippines is second.

While the Phillipines is most eager to greatly increase its geothermal electricity production, the U.S. geothermal developers must often seek funding from sources such as Canada or even an Icelandic bank. That bank is eagerly promoting and investing in geothermal power as well as direct use heating and cooling around the world.  Iceland itself would perhaps be an unpopulated island without geothermal power and heating but is far from the largest producer of geothermal power.

How did the U.S. become the world’s leading producer of electric power from geothermal acquifers when so few in this country give a damn about the most potent and greenest source of power of them all?  The answer is a true story saga beyond the imagination of a Zane Grey of a western pioneer with a vision that far outshone most any tinsel legend dreamt of by Hollywood writers and producers.

B. C. McCabe was drilling holes all over the U.S.’s west coast looking for “underground sources of energy” when Saudi light crude went for maybe %5/barrel and gas was about 35 cents/gallon.

The Crump Geyser was one result.  The geyser actually erupted months after McCabe plugged and abandoned the drilling in the remote high desert country of eastern Oregon.  The nearest “town” of Adel, named after somebody’s sweetheart or a cow, was an all-purpose general store, gas pump, watering hole and pool table all packed into one weathered building.  Fittingly another pioneer’s covered wagon today sits outside the building that is the whole of the town of Adel, named for somebody’s sweetheart or a cow.

Well I tell you that geyser was the talk of the town in bone dry country that Douglas Adams called a whole lot of nothing. That geyser shot a steady stream of hot water some 40′ high for many months while county officials debated over what might be done with that treasure trove of water in dry desert country.  While expert panels met and debated and planned, the geyser began to dwindle and finally  reduced to a gurgling spring spring and then just another dry hole.  About a half century later some folks are looking again at the Crump Geyser for “an underground source of energy” near the building that is the town of Adel, named for somebody’s sweetheart or a cow.  If some furriners spring for a loan, it might even be developed.

The Geysers north of San Francisco was somewhat more successful.  The Geysers became the second “dry steam” goethermal power source in all the world and the largest geothermal power producer that ever was.  It remains so today despite decades of neglect after Union Oil raided McCabe’s small empire and broke the heart of the crusty old curmudgeon in a Wall Street shootout.  McCabe was left rich and broken.  Union Oil and later Calpine drained much of the acquifer producing power, somewhat reminiscent of the county officials in Oregon dealing with their own geyser.  Today waste water is being piped from a distant locale  to replenish some of the water taken from the acquifer without replenishment.  The Geysers may return to its full former glory and more.

Nicaragua is in dire straits these days.  Actually Nicaragua has always been in dire straits as the second poorest country, after Haiti, in the Western Hemispher.  Hugo Chavez has come bearing gifts from fossil fuels but also some costly propositions, as such lusty suitors are wont to do.  Friendly Iranians have been asked to help out with additional hydroelectric power projects but seem none to eager to aid a friend.  And so Nicaragua is looking more fondly these days on the hated gringos continuing development of some of Nicaragua’s magnificent geothermal resources.

Might not be such a blessing for Costa Ricans.  The hungry darker-skinned “Nicas” are treated by the “Ticas” much like the “illegal immigrants” in the u.s. these days.

The Nicaraguan economy, never a model of health, has grown sicker with frequent blackouts of very high-priced electric power from overstressed decaying power plants. Geothermal promises bountiful, low-priced energy with funding from – you guessed it – Canada, and a Brazilian bank.

In the U.S. there is some talk of restoring funding cuts for research in finding geothermal acqufers and drilling through hard granite as opposed to the softer sedimentary strata where gas and oil are found and even – glory be – favorable tax treatment.

Wouldn’t that be something.

Don’t hold your breath.

For the record, I purposely neglected to mention that Prof. Tester and his ivory tower experts talked only about hot dry rock technology.  They called it something else so perhaps people wouldn’t remember experimentation with a large geothermal resource in New Mexico that came up – well – dry.  Today the upside down folk Down Under are in heat over hot rocks.  The most advanced development is in the Outback.  The problem has always been that the water to be used to mine the heat goes down all right but, like the little kid’s boomerang, don’t always come back.  The Outback wouldn’t seem to be the sort of place where you would want to lose a lot of water.

A bit of work to be done yet.  Nuke ’em Hillary has proposed a $13B Apollo project.  Prof. Tester and gang estimated $1B would be enough to develop Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS).  Slim chance EGS would get any considering Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi together can find few others interested in a “regional” resource.  The region where geothermal might be economically developed is Earth.

Texas, where volcanic activity is limited to political hot air, as Molly Ivins so wonderfully recorded in her day, is developing geothermal resources. My own New York, where a Known Geothermal Resource Area (KGRA) has been known about for decades in the fingerlakes area, isn’t.

Best,  Terry