Thursday 21 October 2010

Google Hits Geothermal Jackpot in West Virginia

Along with the great news that Google is investing a ton of money in anoffshore wind energy superhighway, other recent Google energy news is that a Google-funded project has discovered enough geothermal potential under a rather infamous coal state — West Virginia — to more than double the state’s electricity generation capacity.
Google gave the Southern Methodist University a $481,500 grant to look into this issue and the research findings were huge.
78% more geothermal energy is under the state than was previously expected.
The implications are rather clear: West Virginia could kick its dirty coal andmountaintop removal habit and start tapping into geothermal. This would be a benefit for the state economically and environmentally, meaning a better quality of life for its residents.
It could also help the country become more energy secure.
“The presence of a large, baseload, carbon neutral and sustainable energy resource in West Virginia could make an important contribution to enhancing the US energy security and for decreasing CO2 emissions,” the report concluded.
West Virginia currently has an electricity generating capacity of 16,350 MW (~97% of that coming from coal power), but the report concluded that if only 2% of the state’s geothermal energy were recovered, it could produce up to 18,890 MW of capacity from clean energy.

1 comment:

Domestic Solar Power said...

Geothermal potential is not limited geographically; its limited economically to certain geographical regions. Some spots are cheaper to drill than others. Some rocks are hard, others soft; some hot spots are shallow and some are deep. It would be pretty easy in Hawaii