End of Oil =>Eruption for Geothermal

Will the end of big-oil mean the start of big-geothermal? With mounting evidence that oil is causing climate change and the industry itself struggling to keep prices economic, even the most diehard lobbyists admit that their industry is on the cusp of change. So what’s to become of this enormous industry full of intelligent and driven people, and the advanced technologies that they have developed? They’ll likely be looking for work soon and their technologies will be looking for a place to go too … and geothermal is their best choice for a destination.

Let’s start with the obvious: oil and geothermal are both underground resources. Geothermal (electricity generation) involves drilling into high temperature groundwater, and then building a plant that generates electricity from the steam. And oil involves drilling into sedimentary rock where geochemical processes have turned buried organic material into our beloved hydrocarbons.

This core underground similarity means the two also have similar problems and similar solutions. One key problem is finding them. These resources do sometimes manifest themselves at the surface via oil seeps or hot springs, but there are no easy finds like that any more. So exploration professionals in both industries turn to methods like geologic mapping and geophysics to narrow in on a prospect. Another problem for both industries is permeability. Around the turn of the millennium the oil industry was facing a major problem in that conventional oil fields were going dry. Plenty of oil was still out there but it was trapped in dense sedimentary rock formations … so along came fracking … and fields like the bakken formation in North Dakota rejuvenated the industry. Geothermal also has a permeability problem. In order to extract energy from a geothermal system you need to be able to extract water, and you cant do that without permeability. High geothermal gradients are associated most commonly with igneus rocks, which are dense and have almost no inherent permeability. In areas where thermal gradient is high but permeability is low it may be possible to engineer a geothermal system by using methods similar to fracking. If engineered geothermal systems become feasible there might be no stopping this industry from becoming a major player in our energy future.

So big oil’s days are undoubtably numbered … They are already looking at the future landscape of renewable clean energy, and they will come to the conclusion that they are best equipped for joining the geothermal team. And when this finally happens … mark my words … things will heat up fast.