What If We Ran the Planet on Geothermal Power?

WHAT IF

Why aren't we harnessing this energy?

Transcript

00:00 What if I told you that

00:05 what lies beneath these mysterious pools

00:08 could access 17 billion years' worth of energy?

00:13 Imagine no longer needing fossil fuels,

00:16 while having an energy source

00:18 that could battle climate change.

00:21 What is geothermal power?

00:25 How much energy is actually available?

00:28 And why aren't we harnessing this energy?

00:32 This is WHAT IF,

00:34 and here's what would happen

00:36 if we ran the planet on geothermal power.

00:40 It has the potential to power the world,

00:43 and it's cleaner and more reliable

00:45 than any other energy source.

00:48 It seems strange that we're not already

00:51 using this all over the globe, right?

00:54 First, let's explain what's actually under

00:57 these strange pools you're soaking in.

01:00 Beneath the Earth's crust,

01:05 there's a layer of hot and molten rock

01:08 called magma.

01:10 Heat is continually produced in this layer

01:13 by the radioactive decay of thorium,

01:16 uranium, and potassium at the Earth's center.

01:20 Heat is also generated by the friction

01:22 along the margins of the shifting continental plates.

01:26 We see this heat from the Earth's interior

01:28 as it generates phenomena on the surface

01:30 like geysers, hot springs, and lava flows.

01:35 The extreme amount of heat

01:37 10,000 m below the Earth's surface

01:40 contains 50,000 times more energy

01:43 than all the world's oil and natural gas resources.

01:47 But how can we harness this energy?

01:51 The most common way of capturing geothermal energy

01:58 is to tap into the naturally occurring

02:01 hydrothermal convection system.

02:04 This is where cooler water

02:06 that seeps into the Earth's crust

02:08 is heated up and rises to the surface.

02:11 Once this heated water is forced to the surface,

02:14 it's relatively simple to capture.

02:16 So while you're soaking up the benefits of the hot spring,

02:20 just underneath you,

02:22 a pipe can be sending hot water

02:24 directly to a heat exchanger in your home.

02:27 At a geothermal power plant,

02:29 they drill their own holes into rock to capture steam.

02:33 There are a few different methods that power plants use,

02:36 but they all pull hot water and steam from the ground.

02:40 When they're done with it,

02:41 they send the warm water back to where it came from

02:44 to help prolong the heat source's life.

02:47 There is one downside to this, however.

02:50 Dry rock geothermal power stations

02:52 inject high-pressure water into deep wells

02:56 to extract heat from the fractured rock

02:58 near the Earth's core.

03:00 This process is very similar to fracking,

03:03 and with that comes the potential of earthquakes.

03:06 So understanding these risks is crucial.

03:10 But the consistent energy output of geothermal plants

03:13 makes them more reliable than coal or nuclear.

03:17 They're even more dependable than solar and wind,

03:20 because they don't have to wait for the right conditions

03:22 to generate energy.

03:24 Iceland is leading the world in harnessing geothermal energy.

03:28 Not that long ago,

03:30 they were one of Europe's poorest countries,

03:32 relying on peat and imported coal for energy.

03:36 Now it's a country with a high standard of living,

03:38 where practically all stationary power

03:41 is derived from renewable resources.

03:44 In 2014, geothermal accounted for 66%

03:49 of Iceland's primary energy use.

03:52 Reykjavik, Iceland's capital,

03:54 uses thermal energy harvested from hot springs

03:57 to melt their snow.

03:58 Hot water is pumped through tubes

04:00 under many of the sidewalks there.

04:03 It's like in-floor heating, but in the great outdoors.

04:07 Think about having access to so much energy.

04:10 You could heat all the roads and sidewalks

04:12 in the Northern Hemisphere.

04:14 The number of winter car accidents

04:16 and slip and fall accidents would dramatically decrease.

04:21 We could also do this with soil

04:23 and grow seasonal crops year-round,

04:25 locally in toasty geothermal greenhouses.

04:29 Delicious, unlimited tropical fruit in winter climates.

04:33 No more importing,

04:34 because there's nothing like a fresh Swedish banana.

04:39 If you're a seafood lover,

04:40 how about a geothermal heated fish farm?

04:44 You could have fresh salmon or tilapia all year round.

04:47 So why is geothermal power not our primary source for energy?

04:53 Well, for starters, it's costly.

04:56 To drill just a single well at a depth of 4 km

05:00 costs about 5 million U.S. dollars.

05:03 If the heat happens to be further down,

05:05 say 10 km,

05:07 then the drilling costs skyrockets to $20 million per well.

05:12 Granted, as drilling technology continues to progress,

05:16 these prices could drop by millions.

05:18 And price-wise, it's not much better for the average homeowner.

05:22 Home pump systems can be as much as $30,000 initially,

05:26 but would bring your energy bills down by 30 to 40 percent,

05:30 and pay for itself within 5 to 10 years.

05:34 Geothermal energy would also reduce our carbon emissions,

05:37 which could significantly impact our changing climate.

05:41 Unfortunately, though,

05:43 it would take decades for Earth to stop warming

05:45 because of the damage we've already done.

05:48 With climate change being such a hot topic,

05:51 it's inspiring to see countries like Iceland running so clean and green.

05:57 Utilizing elements of geothermal, wind, and solar

06:01 should be commonplace,

06:02 because there's no longer any denying

06:05 the negative environmental impact of fossil fuels.

06:09 So could we completely stop burning fossil fuels around the world?

06:15 Well, that's a story for another WHAT IF.

06:19 (upbeat music)

06:22 (upbeat music)

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