Geothermal Energy and Entropy

As fossil fuels are starting to become scarcer and harder to obtain, we human energy hogs are finding ever better ways to convert forces of nature into sources of household energy. We have begun to harness wind, waves and sun and in some parts of the world, we have started to extract heating and cooling BTUs from the Earth.

Places like Iceland, where volcanic heat is just below the surface, this geothermal energy has been used for centuries. Even in Africa I have stumbled over project of this type while hiking in Hell's Gate National Park near Lake Naivasha in Kenya.

Olkaria I Geothermal Power Plant in Kenya, 1988

Just yesterday I heard a radio program on how the state of California is sponsoring geothermal initiatives (Full Steam Ahead for Geothermal Plans, NPR). While generally boosterish, the report did acknowledge bore holes literally running out of steam, issues with small earthquakes, and boreholes collapsing. Indeed, a quick survey of these problems brings up articles from the web. The running-out-of-steam problem in particular piqued my interest. I had thought before generating geothermal energy is closely tied to the second law of thermodynamics. As the air is heated, the earth in the bore hole is cooled. Eventually, and admittedly probably after many millions of years, the temperature of the earth and of the earth will be the same.

I thought about this on my way to work and forgot about it till I drove home, again with my radio tuned to NPR. And wouldn't you know it, a certain Cedric Villani won a mathematics award (the Fields Medal) for calculating the rate at which entropy increases in the world.

This was too odd to simply ignore. And when my friend Paul told me he wanted to install a geothermal system in his house, I know I needed to take another look.

A search for geothermal and entropy brings indeed quite a few hits and leads to articles such as this one: "Entropy (not Energy) is the Issue, New Earth Rising"

I don't know much about physics or math but I am glad that my musings are not necessarily original.

You are part of the problem

The following is a fictional e-mail exchange between two colleagues working for ACME, a large multinational corporation. P is the proud owner of a corn stove. He constantly annoys his colleagues with stories of the warmth and coziness of his home, all allegedly due to the virtues of his renewable-energy-burning corn stove, all at a fraction of the cost and carbon footprint of natural gas, LPG or oil. I is an environmentally concerned person who has his doubts about the viability of King Corn as an inexhaustible source of clean, carbon-neutral energy. I has been trying to convince P for some time to use his critical faculties when considering corn as an energy source. Finally I has found what he thinks may convince P of the error of his ways: an article in The Economist.

From: I
Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 2:52 PM
To: P
Subject: You are part of the problem

http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14205727&fsrc=rss

_____________________________________

From: P
Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 2:55 PM
To: I
Subject: RE: You are part of the problem

Carbon neutral living…….you should try it sometime. I can’t wait to get a second corn burner on the main floor of our house….

No lectures until you country gets a government.

[I is from a small, insignificant country in Europe that was, for some time, stuck in a governmental crisis but nevertheless managed to maintain a carbon footprint (per capita) smaller than that of the large and hegemonic nation of which P is a proud citizen]

____________________________

From: I
Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 2:58 PM
To: P
Subject: RE: You are part of the problem

It may smell good when you burn it, but I still smell a rat. You are in denial, just like the RFA (Renewable Fuel Association). If you are serious you need to get these solar panels and wind mills and you should put those dogs on a treadmill so they can work for their food.

______________________________

From: P
Sent: Mon 8/10/2009 3:01 PM
To: I
Subject: RE: You are part of the problem

I am not burning rats, I am burning corn. Good clean renewable corn from Minnesota. You keep working hard and someday you too may have a corn burner. But until that days arrives, keep sending your money to the evil doers in the middle east who own all of the oil.

_______________________________________

From: I
Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 3:01 PM
To: P
Subject: RE: You are part of the problem

[The thought of dogs gives I an idea] We should try to figure out how to pelletize dog-do. Then we’d be celebrated as men who can make money out of shit.

_____________________________________

From: P
Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 3:05 PM
To: I
Subject: RE: You are part of the problem

Actually, that is no a bad idea, now that I think of it. I will bring you a bag of it tomorrow and you can play around with it and roll it up into little balls and dry them out in your oven. Then we can light a match and see if they burn.

_____________________________________

From: I
Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 3:11 PM
To: P
Subject: RE: You are part of the problem

How about we meet at the microwave ovens in the cafeteria and start our project there. If we are not using your oven or my oven we are already half-way carbon-neutral. Plus, if we are doing this on company time we might get the ACME Innovation Award. And no more pesky lines in front of the microwave ovens! This is win-win-win!

_____________________________________

From: P
Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 3:13 PM
To: I
Subject: RE: You are part of the problem

I might have some on the bottom of my shoe we could start with……………I will send it to you via intra-office mail and mark it Urgent Delivery

_____________________________________

From: I
Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 3:14 PM
To: P
Subject: RE: You are part of the problem

Somehow I scent or rather sense that you are not altogether serious about lowering your carbon foot-print. Otherwise you would scrape it from both of your shoes.