Mom, I'm cold, can you turn up the volcano?

Ok, son...

Volcanos blow.

How long do cable laid on the ocean floor last these days? Also, wouldn't almost 1000 miles of transmission cables have a lot of resistance?

What are the transmission losses over that distance?

not a bad idea...it's not like the volcanoes are likely to go dormant anytime soon.

What a shocking idea.

Ask your father

Mum, I'm cold. Fancy you turn up the volcano?

More British

Paging Piyush "Bobby" Jindal!

Harold Saxon was re-elected?

Iceland's geothermal & techtonic goodness makes for a cool vacation spot. I got back from my second trip just a few weeks ago.


Plus scuba diving between the continental plates at Silfra:


On my first trip, we toured through their latest and most modern geo-thermal plant, the 400MW Hellisheiði Power Station. It was downright sci-fi in its construction and operation.


/Iceland is awesome

Sure thing



/hot

I find it odd that they call this low carbon since the volcano probably releases orders of magnitude more CO2 per unit of electricity generated than a coal burning power plant.

We must stop these old white men from building more volcanoes to power our energy hungry lifestyle at the expense of our children's futures.

Jake Havechek: Paging Piyush "Bobby" Jindal!

"While some of the projects in the bill make sense, their legislation is larded with wasteful spending. It includes"... "$140 million for something called 'volcano monitoring.' Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, D.C."

jeffowl: I find it odd that they call this low carbon since the volcano probably releases orders of magnitude more CO2 per unit of electricity generated than a coal burning power plant.

troll troll troll your boat

Does the power plant use the pressure being released to generate power? Or the heat? Or both?

cgraves67: How long do cable laid on the ocean floor last these days? Also, wouldn't almost 1000 miles of transmission cables have a lot of resistance?

I don't think this is a good idea, for the reasons you stated.

SnarfVader: Jake Havechek: Paging Piyush "Bobby" Jindal!

"While some of the projects in the bill make sense, their legislation is larded with wasteful spending. It includes"... "$140 million for something called 'volcano monitoring.' Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, D.C."i>

And he's the sensible G(__o__)P (possible) candidate.

Re: Losses in undersea cables.

Losses in long distance cables are mostly in the form of I^2xR (current squared times resistance). If you increase voltage enough the current decreases and losses are far less significant. In an undersea cable the high voltage would be an issue due to significant insulation required to deal with it. Line capacitance can be a real problem as well so it could quite likely run as high voltage DC.

Interesting issues but not insurmountable. The real question is whether it is economically viable to pay for the cables over their expected lifetime given the differential cost between Icelandic power and European power.

...Was just looking up some info on geothermal power this morning. Wikipedia has a pretty decent article on the methods.

/P.Eng.

nickerj1: Does the power plant use the pressure being released to generate power? Or the heat? Or both?

It somewhat depends on the site, but this is a basic understanding of the process.

-Find area with hot springs
-Drill wells a couple thousand feet into hot springs
-Wells return boiling hot water
-Boiling water goes through heat exchangers to separate corrosive minerals
-Clean, boiling water is used to turn ~325 MW of turbines
-An additional 400 MW worth of 'waste' boiling water is then piped via insulated pipes to urban areas. Residents enjoy nearly free hot water for home and water heating via geothermal 'waste' water.

This is just more stupid hippies trying their best to harm the oil companies. Why don't they stop dreaming and get a job?

/how'm I doin'?

So, question for all you geophysicists out there:

If we were able to drill down to Earth's mantle anywhere on Earth - Des Moines, IA, for example - we could essentially use the temperature gradient as an efficient power source, right?

Deep drilling (heh heh) would be an incredibly valuable technology to have for that any plenty of other reasons (mineral and oil recovery, etc), but I never hear about anyone trying really hard to do it. Why? Are we trying and I just don't hear about it?

markie_farkie: Don't forget, the Blue Lagoon is basically runoff from a geothermal power/heat plant (in background of first pic I took)

Wow, nice pics!

I was able to enjoy the Blue Lagoon on my way back to the airport on my most recent trip. I agree, it was a must see.

I didn't bother with snapping any shots there, as the weather was very poor & windy that day. That however didn't take away from the pleasant time wading around in the geothermal waste water. If only the same could be said for US coal plants.

KangTheMad: Snapper Carr: Ask your father

[i1127.photobucket.com image 355x397]

Nashville, TN is still standing I see. I am rather disappointed.

Hey! what you got against music city?

If you wish to talk about places priming to go "BOOM" look at the earthquake activity near conway and searcy in Arkansas.
All of the quakes are shallow (these were once referred to as "magmatic" quakes) and a few have shown what may be harmonic tremors. not to mention Hell's half acre is experiencing a tree die-off and some small animal and bird die-offs have been reported in the area as well.
It doesn't help that the USGS has admitted that there is a supervolcano caldera there, thought to be either extinct or dormant, and that they don't know what has been causing the surge of activity in this one area for the last year. They blamed it on fracking wells in the area for a while, but that theory fell out of favor when the quakes that should have ended after 3 months have continued for an entire year.


/Nashville WILL be buried under ash when that thing blows, so you will get your wish.

Why on earth would they use copper for such long cables? Can you imagine how heavy (and expensive) they would be?

Use of aluminum conductor, steel reinforced (ACSR) combined with AC-DC converters on each end to eliminate reactive losses, would make for a much better setup.

MrSteve007: I didn't bother with snapping any shots there, as the weather was very poor & windy that day. That however didn't take away from the pleasant time wading around in the geothermal waste water. If only the same could be said for US coal plants.

Not to detract from the fact that coal plants are big polluters, but if they ran the cooling water from the condenser of a coal plant to a lagoon, the same experience could be had -- minus the chalky blue water, of course, which comes from dissolved minerals.

Antagonism: Sure thing

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/hot

Was just about to post that. I always turn up the volcano when I'm cold ;)

Lord Dimwit: So, question for all you geophysicists out there:

If we were able to drill down to Earth's mantle anywhere on Earth - Des Moines, IA, for example - we could essentially use the temperature gradient as an efficient power source, right?

Deep drilling (heh heh) would be an incredibly valuable technology to have for that any plenty of other reasons (mineral and oil recovery, etc), but I never hear about anyone trying really hard to do it. Why? Are we trying and I just don't hear about it?

I'm not a geophysicist, but I'm assuming it's been a question of comparative economic advantage/feasibility. It would cost a lot of capital upfront to drill those holes, and so it's not worthwhile unless there is a big economic payoff down the road (like there is with drilling oil wells): same problem with the economics of nuclear power plants. In places with lots of surface geothermal activity (like Iceland), it's probably a lot more economically viable, since you don't have to drill so deep. Technology was also a factor until the most recent past, most likely. But as technology advances, and costs of other competing energy sources rise, it probably becomes more viable.

It's also worth noting that geothermal energy on a smaller, less grandiose scale is already widely used in the U.S., in the form of geothermal heat pumps that use the ground as a heat sink/heat source in order to increase the efficiency of other forms of heating and cooling or even replace them in some climates. So this isn't unprecedented...it's just not widely used outside of a few places for large-scale electrical generation.

destrip: Why on earth would they use copper for such long cables? Can you imagine how heavy (and expensive) they would be?

Use of aluminum conductor, steel reinforced (ACSR) combined with AC-DC converters on each end to eliminate reactive losses, would make for a much better setup.

MrSteve007: I didn't bother with snapping any shots there, as the weather was very poor & windy that day. That however didn't take away from the pleasant time wading around in the geothermal waste water. If only the same could be said for US coal plants.

Not to detract from the fact that coal plants are big polluters, but if they ran the cooling water from the condenser of a coal plant to a lagoon, the same experience could be had -- minus the chalky blue water, of course, which comes from dissolved minerals.

But as a bonus you could develop a fine layer of soot from the smoke stack exhaust.

Lord Dimwit: So, question for all you geophysicists out there:

If we were able to drill down to Earth's mantle anywhere on Earth - Des Moines, IA, for example - we could essentially use the temperature gradient as an efficient power source, right?

Deep drilling (heh heh) would be an incredibly valuable technology to have for that any plenty of other reasons (mineral and oil recovery, etc), but I never hear about anyone trying really hard to do it. Why? Are we trying and I just don't hear about it?

My suspicion is that the distance you'd need to go down to hit a hot enough layer would be a daunting load for the pumps. It's like lifting a column of water several miles high. So you have a trade-off - pump (shallow) water at a lower delta-T at a faster rate, or pump water at a higher delta-T from much further down. Either way, energy intensive.

But such is not my area of expertise.

BigNumber12: My suspicion is that the distance you'd need to go down to hit a hot enough layer would be a daunting load for the pumps. It's like lifting a column of water several miles high. So you have a trade-off - pump (shallow) water at a lower delta-T at a faster rate, or pump water at a higher delta-T from much further down. Either way, energy intensive.

But such is not my area of expertise.


To clarify - my base assumption is that the cooler crust of the earth varies in thickness. It's nice and close by in volcanic regions like Iceland, but deeper elsewhere. But geology is definitely not my area of expertise.

This is horseshiat, they should be burning fossil fuels. It's not like it does any harm.

Treygreen13: I remember that episode of Dinosaurs.
[mydisguises.com image 304x548]

I think it was this kid who came up with the idea to use the constantly-erupting volcano as a power source, but the evil corporate guys discredited him by saying that he didn't shower after the gym.

The amusing bit is this really is how Klamath Falls generates electricity. And keeps the sidewalks at Oregon Tech clear of ice and snow. And makes the same sidewalks shoe-meltingly, skin-searingly hot in the summer.

What the fark is wrong with me? I don't recall what I had for dinner last night but I remember this shiat.

Same problem here.

Antagonism: Sure thing

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/hot

God damn I love those.