Seattle PI: High-tech materials may boost geothermal appeal

High-tech materials may boost geothermal appeal
By ANNETTE CARY TRI-CITY HERALD

RICHLAND, Wash. -- New nanomaterials could provide the boost in efficiency needed to make heat beneath the earth's surface a practical source to generate nearly pollution-free electricity if research at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory proves out.

Geothermal resources largely fell out of favor in the early '80s for power generation when few places proved to have hot enough rock close enough to the earth's surface to make geothermal power generation efficient and economical.

But Peter McGrail, a fellow at the Richland lab, thinks the nanomaterials may help make geothermal a more practical resource by allowing efficient energy production at lower temperatures.

"What we have is a new energy-producing cycle that will allow us to exploit these low-temperature geothermal sources for a more economical power production," McGrail said.

Geothermal already has several advantages. It's renewable and produces almost no pollution, including carbon dioxide. And unlike solar and wind power, it would be constantly available to provide the steady base load a power grid requires.

But in conventional geothermal use for power production, hot rock beneath the earth's surface needs to heat water driven into it to 300 degrees Fahrenheit, or more typically hotter, to make electricity production efficient. [read rest of article]