Harry Stevens of The Washington Post reports on how fracking is unlocking clean energy.
- The same drilling technology that unleashed the fracking revolution (which reduced emissions in the U.S.) is being used to generate abundant, carbon-free geothermal power.
- Breakthroughs in enhanced geothermal production, which are being spearheaded by Fervo Energy, are allowing the energy source to be less geographically constrained as its traditional counterpart.
- Despite the benefits that geothermal provides, it has not enjoyed the same permitting wins as other energy sources which has delayed its implementation (although the latest bipartisan Senate permitting bill seeks to address this).
“To extract enough heat in places with cooler rock, geothermal developers must drill 15,000 feet or deeper, which is more expensive. Faster drilling helped the oil and gas industry dig deeper to squeeze more profits out of shale rock, and analysts expect geothermal drilling speed to similarly improve.”
Read the full article here.
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