The Age of Sustainability — Issue #10 — Geothermal Rocks

Okay, we did batteries last time and you all did very well indeed.

As I’ve noted before this newsletter is about the how of solving climate change. We can talk all we want about limiting emissions but we also have to have ways to replace the polluting technology with something better.

Here’s something better.

Time to think about baseload power. Baseload is the minimum we need to keep the lights on, literally. You’ve already heard of peakload which you might associate with the maximum demand in the afternoon on a hot summer day when you really don’t want to contemplate a power outage. Baseload keeps the pork chops solid in the freezer at night when they’re the last thing on your mind.

We get baseload power right now by burning things to boil water to spin turbines that make electricity. There are lots of problems with this even if pollution and global warming are not ideas you mess with.

You see, when you burn something, say, coal, about two-thirds of the energy in the coal goes up the smokestack. another 15 percent or so goes to overcoming the friction of the power lines (called resistance) that deliver the power to your home. Only about 20 percent of the original energy goes to power the computer you are reading this on.

Now imagine how inefficient it is to boil water on an electric stove.

Yikes!