Thursday, June 14, 2012

Google US’s Largest Geothermal Research Investor



Google, which has a huge interest in affordable power to run its ever-growing numbers of server farms, is heavily investing in research into the development of geothermal power. In the US, Google is the largest funding source for geothermal research.

MIT researchers estimate that the America could develop 100 gigawatts of generating capacity from geothermal over the next 40 years at a cost of US$1 billion. Australia is trying something similar, but its timetable is much more aggressive, and costs more.

“The association estimated A$12 billion would need to be invested to develop the 2,200 megawatts of power, but added the cost of generating electricity would fall to acceptable levels by the time commercial projects were up and running.”

The amount of energy that could be generated from geothermal power is has massive potential. The Australian group estimates that just 1 percent of the country’s geothermal capacity could provide 26,000 years worth of clean electricity.

4 comments:

Tamara said...

Looks like Geothermal power research is getting more attention, such as from Google. It has a lot of potential for efficient power production.

Tamara said...

Maybe it's the right decision from the Sabah government for planning to adapt the Geothermal power plant for the state's power needs.

Smookiekins said...

Geothermal electricity is electricity generated from geothermal energy. Technologies in use include dry steam power plants, flash steam power plants and binary cycle power plants.

Smookiekins said...

Estimates of the electricity generating potential of geothermal energy vary from 35 to 2,000 GW. Current worldwide installed capacity is 10,715 megawatts (MW), with the largest capacity in the United States (3,086 MW),Philippines, and Indonesia.

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