Fracking Is the Key to Renewable Energy? Who Ever Imagined It! Will Someone Tell Josh Fox?

I am intrigued by geothermal energy. Indeed, it’s the only renewable energy concept, other than landfill gas, that makes any economic sense to me. Therefore, i was quite interested when Penn State’s Center for Energy Law and Policy came out with a detailed report extolling its potential. Titled “The Future of Geothermal in Pennsylvania, Leveraging the Commonwealth's Legacy” it lays out all the arguments in favor of exploiting geothermal energy possibilities. I recommend checking it out.

There are two aspects to the report that drew my particular attention.

First, is the fact most geothermal well development relies upon the same fracking that typically occurs with natural gas development today. There are Advanced Geothermal Systems (AGS) relying only upon horizontal drilling of closed loop systems, but the report says the following about that:

AGS can be developed in virtually any geological condition with sufficient subsurface heat. While AGS guarantees a more definitive pathway for fluid flow in the subsurface relative to fracked EGS wells, drilling sufficiently long and deep AGS wells can be challenging and expensive.

Then, there are the economics:

While common in the western United States and Europe, and even on some Pennsylvania university campuses (such as Lehigh University), geothermal district heating and cooling networks at utility scale would be relatively novel in the Commonwealth and region . Natural gas providers could be key allies in the Commonwealth, as they have been in New York and Maryland .

As shown in Chapter 2: Where to Develop Geothermal, some locations in Pennsylvania could also host geothermal electricity generation projects, which means electricity providers also have a stake in how geothermal development proceeds in the Commonwealth. Recent studies suggest that current technologies could provide up to 15 MW of capacity per geothermal well to local electricity supplies.

Utilities in Pennsylvania do not own generation; rather, utilities and competitive electricity suppliers procure generation to supply to customers . That makes electricity providers potential customers for geothermal project developers . However, geothermal electricity costs may need to come down to achieve widespread interest from providers . If subsidies and other incentives were offered for projects, the deployment of geothermal could increase by more than 20 percent. (Policy support is addressed in detail in Chapter 5: Additional Policy and Regulatory Issues.) Electricity generation from geothermal projects might also require new transmission and distribution infrastructure (e .g ., poles and wires) and integration into existing infrastructure, which means engagement with distribution utilities, transmission operators, and PUC officials.

Understand that “engagement” in this case means special deals. And, that’s what is recommended, of course, with the following mentions:

• “Create and Expand Targeted Incentives for Direct-Use Geothermal Applications”

• “Expanding the renewable energy loan program”

• “Ensure incentive effectiveness”

• “Provide funding support for public and private entities to develop geothermal energy projects”

• “Renew, revise, and revitalize the Commonwealth’s alternative energy portfolio standard to incentivize next-generation geothermal power and heat”

• “Create or explore set-asides for geothermal heating and cooling within … Renewable Portfolio Standards”

• “Pricing carbon emissions would benefit geothermal energy technologies (and all low- or zero-carbon energy resources) by making them more economically competitive relative to fossil fuels”

Get the picture? It’s not hard. The purpose of this report is to put geothermal on the green energy gravy train.

#Geothermal #FossilFuels #Energy #PennState #Subsidies #Pennsylvania