How much power can society expect to produce using geothermal energy, a greener energy source?
Actually, we could produce enough power to satisfy all of man’s needs with geothermal energy. The problem is that it is not economically feasible to do so. The reason for this is the difficulty of power transmission. In attempting to transmit electricity in a wire grid system, where they exist, we have limits of a few hundred miles, before the losses due to resistance eat up so much power that the economic feasibility falls off entirely. If we tried to produce geothermal energy on a massive scale where it was not readily available to us through geyser activity and other hot spots in the earth’s crust, the cost would be staggering. So, in conclusion, it is possible, but not economically feasible to do so. As a result, the worldwide percentage of required power that could be produced with geothermal would be less than ten percent, and probably closer to five percent.
