There is, however, access in a number of regions where geothermal can be quite useful.
Iceland doesn't have a large population (332,000), but it's relatively close to Europe (or at least Ireland), and there have been proposals to link it via undersea transmission cables to the European grid.
Other significant resources exist around much of the Pacific Rim, including in Hawaii (limited population and a long way from nowhere), Japan (high population and critical energy resource ocnstraints), the Philippines, New Zealand, and the Pacific coast of the US. One of the largest present geothermal installations is The Geysers in California, with just under 1 GW of installed capacity. The largest geothermal resource within the US would be the Yellowstone supercaldera, and though this is presently protected from development, it represents a vast energy potential, as much as 20% of present US electric generating potential under some estimates. The National Park Status means that research is highly limited, so take with a very strong dose of salt.
Other significant resources exist in Kenya (another rift zone, as is New Zealand). Given Africa's status as a developing region, this is potentially hugely useful.
Geothermal has been significantly developed in many of these areas. I did some digging and apparently the Philippines has developed as much as 50% of its potential, where it provides 16% of the nation's electricity needs. Japan and the US have also done considerable development, as, of course, has Iceland.
Geothermal offers a number of very useful characteristics in a renewable / sustainable energy mix, including:
⚫ Base-load potential. Geothermal runs 24/7, is dispatchable (that is, you can throttle it up or down), and balances the nondispatchable nature of wind and solar energy.
⚫ Proven. Geothermal has been in active commercial production for decades. This is proven technology.
⚫ Relatively low local impacts. Plant footprints are small and local environmental disturbance fairly limited. Water needs and the possibility of locally-induced earthquakes (most minor) are possible concerns.
But it is still limited to specific locations for high yields. And if you're drawing sufficient amounts of thermal energy from even high-yield caldera, it can take a considerable period of time (decades) for a geothermal zone to recover. This is particularly a concern with "EGS" (enhanced geothermal systems) in which boreholes are drilled into otherwise only marginal zones. Often a single borehole's useful life is limited to a decade or two.
there have been proposals to link it via undersea transmission cables to the European grid
A transmission cable is sometimes discussed, but so far Iceland has been taking advantage of the fact that aluminum smelting is a workable way to congeal cheap power into transportable money. Aluminum smelting is typically by electrolysis [1], and aluminum is light and compact relative to its value so easy to ship, so smelting aluminum and exporting it essentially allows you to "export electricity". Not at the same rates as you could sell actual electricity, but with easier transport/storage characteristics that makes it still attractive. The largest power plant in Iceland (a hydro one) is entirely purpose-built solely to power a smelter [2].
Right. Much as food production is an alternative to exporting water, aluminum (or fertilizer) productions are alternatives to exporting energy.
You'll typically find aluminium smelters where electricity is cheap. E.g., the Pacific Northwest / Western Canada, where ample hydroelectric resources exist.
Much as food production is an alternative to exporting water
There's only very little water in exported food, so as long as you're not using non-replenishable sources (like fossil water) or limited sources (like rivers) for food production, the amount of water that is actually exported is negligibly small.
We don’t realize it as we sit down to a meal, but most crops require huge volumes of water to grow: 65 gallons to grow a pound of potatoes; 650 gallons for a pound of rice.
Often, food supplies are only maintained at the expense of literally emptying some of the world’s great rivers, such as the Indus in Pakistan, the Yellow River in China and the Nile in Egypt. Elsewhere, underground reserves are being pumped dry.
But increasingly, countries are giving up on trying to feed their populations from their own resources and are switching to food imports. That means they are also importing the water embodied in the crops, or virtual water. Every ton of wheat arriving at a dockside carries with it, in virtual form, the thousand tons of water needed to grow it.
And if you're looking at meat, it's much higher -- about 2,500 gallons per pound of beef.
Similarly, it's not that you're going to get zapped by electricity when touching aluminum, but the amount of electricity required to extract that aluminum is vast.
Maybe you should have actually read my comment: I was explicitly excluding cases where river or fossil water is being used.
And the "65 gallons of water per pound of potatoes" is utter bullshit. Whether rain falls on untouched grass land or on potato plants does not matter to the water ecosystem.
Comments
There is, however, access in a number of regions where geothermal can be quite useful.
Iceland doesn't have a large population (332,000), but it's relatively close to Europe (or at least Ireland), and there have been proposals to link it via undersea transmission cables to the European grid.
Other significant resources exist around much of the Pacific Rim, including in Hawaii (limited population and a long way from nowhere), Japan (high population and critical energy resource ocnstraints), the Philippines, New Zealand, and the Pacific coast of the US. One of the largest present geothermal installations is The Geysers in California, with just under 1 GW of installed capacity. The largest geothermal resource within the US would be the Yellowstone supercaldera, and though this is presently protected from development, it represents a vast energy potential, as much as 20% of present US electric generating potential under some estimates. The National Park Status means that research is highly limited, so take with a very strong dose of salt.
Other significant resources exist in Kenya (another rift zone, as is New Zealand). Given Africa's status as a developing region, this is potentially hugely useful.
Geothermal has been significantly developed in many of these areas. I did some digging and apparently the Philippines has developed as much as 50% of its potential, where it provides 16% of the nation's electricity needs. Japan and the US have also done considerable development, as, of course, has Iceland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_power_in_the_Philip...
Geothermal offers a number of very useful characteristics in a renewable / sustainable energy mix, including:
⚫ Base-load potential. Geothermal runs 24/7, is dispatchable (that is, you can throttle it up or down), and balances the nondispatchable nature of wind and solar energy.
⚫ Proven. Geothermal has been in active commercial production for decades. This is proven technology.
⚫ Relatively low local impacts. Plant footprints are small and local environmental disturbance fairly limited. Water needs and the possibility of locally-induced earthquakes (most minor) are possible concerns.
But it is still limited to specific locations for high yields. And if you're drawing sufficient amounts of thermal energy from even high-yield caldera, it can take a considerable period of time (decades) for a geothermal zone to recover. This is particularly a concern with "EGS" (enhanced geothermal systems) in which boreholes are drilled into otherwise only marginal zones. Often a single borehole's useful life is limited to a decade or two.
A transmission cable is sometimes discussed, but so far Iceland has been taking advantage of the fact that aluminum smelting is a workable way to congeal cheap power into transportable money. Aluminum smelting is typically by electrolysis [1], and aluminum is light and compact relative to its value so easy to ship, so smelting aluminum and exporting it essentially allows you to "export electricity". Not at the same rates as you could sell actual electricity, but with easier transport/storage characteristics that makes it still attractive. The largest power plant in Iceland (a hydro one) is entirely purpose-built solely to power a smelter [2].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hall%E2%80%93H%C3%A9roult_proc...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A1rahnj%C3%BAkar_Hydropow...
Right. Much as food production is an alternative to exporting water, aluminum (or fertilizer) productions are alternatives to exporting energy.
You'll typically find aluminium smelters where electricity is cheap. E.g., the Pacific Northwest / Western Canada, where ample hydroelectric resources exist.
There's only very little water in exported food, so as long as you're not using non-replenishable sources (like fossil water) or limited sources (like rivers) for food production, the amount of water that is actually exported is negligibly small.
There's only very little water in exported food
The point isn't how much water is physically in food exported, but how much was required to create it. From this Forbes article:
http://www.forbes.com/2008/06/19/water-food-trade-tech-water...
We don’t realize it as we sit down to a meal, but most crops require huge volumes of water to grow: 65 gallons to grow a pound of potatoes; 650 gallons for a pound of rice.
Often, food supplies are only maintained at the expense of literally emptying some of the world’s great rivers, such as the Indus in Pakistan, the Yellow River in China and the Nile in Egypt. Elsewhere, underground reserves are being pumped dry.
But increasingly, countries are giving up on trying to feed their populations from their own resources and are switching to food imports. That means they are also importing the water embodied in the crops, or virtual water. Every ton of wheat arriving at a dockside carries with it, in virtual form, the thousand tons of water needed to grow it.
And if you're looking at meat, it's much higher -- about 2,500 gallons per pound of beef.
Similarly, it's not that you're going to get zapped by electricity when touching aluminum, but the amount of electricity required to extract that aluminum is vast.
Maybe you should have actually read my comment: I was explicitly excluding cases where river or fossil water is being used.
And the "65 gallons of water per pound of potatoes" is utter bullshit. Whether rain falls on untouched grass land or on potato plants does not matter to the water ecosystem.
There is very little electricity in aluminium too.
That's not the point, really.
Africa is not a country.
Doh! Um. I'm going to fix that.