>Meta’s geothermal ambitions are growing with a new agreement to support projects in New Mexico.
>It announced the deal with XGS Energy today, a company developing next-generation geothermal technologies that make it possible to use this energy source in places where it was unfeasible before. The plan is to add 150 megawatts of carbon pollution-free electricity to the power grid that Meta’s data center plugs into in the region. ………
I think enhanced geothermal is going to be a massive industry in ten years. The oil and gas industry has developed tremendous expertise in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, this involves some new equipment and procedures but it is within the skillset of existing workforces, using existing equipment. This is a series of relatively small innovations on existing tech, and it is extremely effective. Who knows what might be possible with additional innovation.
For those who aren’t familiar, conventional geothermal only works where there is a natural geyser or volcanic steam vent- hot water underground. Enhanced geothermal works in hot dry rock, which is thousands of times more common. It involves fracking, but the fractures are miles below any aquifers used for drinking water, and the rock itself is “cleaner”. Oil and gas fracking is always done in rock containing hydrocarbons, hydrocarbons are poison. The shale has problematic amounts of mineral salts, because it was a seabed. Enhanced geothermal drills into granite, there is generally nothing harmful in it, and if there is there is plenty of other granite to drill into.
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>Meta’s geothermal ambitions are growing with a new agreement to support projects in New Mexico.
>It announced the deal with XGS Energy today, a company developing next-generation geothermal technologies that make it possible to use this energy source in places where it was unfeasible before. The plan is to add 150 megawatts of carbon pollution-free electricity to the power grid that Meta’s data center plugs into in the region. ………
[Meta already has a 150MW geothermal project under development with Sage Geosystems](https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/geothermal/sage-geosystems-and-meta-sign-150mw-geothermal-power-agreement)
I think enhanced geothermal is going to be a massive industry in ten years. The oil and gas industry has developed tremendous expertise in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, this involves some new equipment and procedures but it is within the skillset of existing workforces, using existing equipment. This is a series of relatively small innovations on existing tech, and it is extremely effective. Who knows what might be possible with additional innovation.
For those who aren’t familiar, conventional geothermal only works where there is a natural geyser or volcanic steam vent- hot water underground. Enhanced geothermal works in hot dry rock, which is thousands of times more common. It involves fracking, but the fractures are miles below any aquifers used for drinking water, and the rock itself is “cleaner”. Oil and gas fracking is always done in rock containing hydrocarbons, hydrocarbons are poison. The shale has problematic amounts of mineral salts, because it was a seabed. Enhanced geothermal drills into granite, there is generally nothing harmful in it, and if there is there is plenty of other granite to drill into.