Cornell wants to drill 2-4mi underground for enhanced geothermal heating
Almost everything we do that initially seems like a good idea stops being such when we start doing it at scale. Burning fuels wasn&#x27;t a problem at the eve of the industrial revolution. I wonder what ecological issues will hit us globally as we scale up geothermal energy use. E.g. I&#x27;ve read somewhere that people putting too many ground-exchange heat pumps in a small area can cause problematic cooling of the ground. Right now it&#x27;s probably only a problem for the energy efficiency of the pumps themselves, but as we scale up, I worry about unintended environmental consequences.<p>Wikipedia seems to have only basic numbers up:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Geothermal_energy#Renewability_and_sustainability" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Geothermal_energy#Renewability...</a><p>The first sentence of that section says that &quot;geothermal power is considered to be renewable because any projected heat extraction is small compared to the Earth&#x27;s heat content.&quot; I&#x27;d like to see some estimates on how much of that heat content is available on the depths we&#x27;re drilling down to (as opposed to the contents of the whole planet); and again, trees were a renewable resource too, before the industrial revolution.