OASIS CITIES COULD POSSIBLY TAP INTO THE REAL THING – GEOTHERMAL ENERGY..!

Just how much heat can be extracted from deep below ground? Or is it only a practicable option in a volcanic zone like Iceland?

GSHP seems an absurdly lot of trouble for small reward – excavating long trenches in the garden of every house and laying a network of coiled plastic “hosepipes” (what could possibly go wrong?) in order to exploit the very modest temperature difference just 1m below the surface.   

With such a large construction site as OA-Cities – 10 hectares (25 acres) – it would seem to make sense to go a bit deeper for the real thing – Geothermal Energy..!  Given the scale of the construction site, it could be economically viable to drill some very deep boreholes – perhaps one at each corner – to get at some much more significant heat.  Just how deep presumably depends on the geology of the area.  Not everywhere is volcanic like Iceland.

Since I wrote the above I’ve read this article which says that – in most parts of the world – you need to drill down to 10km or more to access significant geothermal heat of about 350 deg C.  Apparently this is far more difficult than it sounds but progress is being made to that end.