The Harnessing of Geo-Thermal Energy

This is a subject that usually rises to the upper reaches of my mind whenever I hear climate-change sceptics (or septics, some might call them) or anti wind farm folk going off on one about renewable energy.

The generation of almost limitless power from the seething mass of magma that our continents float lazily upon.

It's the no lose renewable option. No house price depressing windmills or car melting solar panels; no worry about off shore wind farms scything migrating birds out of the sky, or tidal power generators interfering with the movement of fish. You just dig a pipe a few thousand metres into the ground, pour some water down it, and wait for it to flash off into steam and rise up some other pipes to drive a turbine. Nothing to see. Nothing to crash into. Nothing to make your "As seen on Escape to the Country" posh village home lose a few quid off its value.

Geo-Thermal energy is essentially nuclear in origin; fission reactions in Earth's core heat the molten mantle and drive things like volcanoes and hot springs. But this is a clean form of energy, water goes in, steam comes out. No carbon production or geiger clacking waste to dispose of. And the energies involved are so much higher than other renewables.

All this is for the future of course, reliable sources of shallow depth geo-thermal heat are not common. But imagine what could happen when we develop the technology to drill twenty miles down? The power is virtually without end. The science fiction writer Olaf Stapledon foresaw this as the future of the Earth in his classic "Last and First Men" where he wrote of the evolution of humanity over trillions of years.

The potential is there. As a science fiction lover, and writer myself I love wondering where it could end up. I suppose there are hazards too, relating to seismic activity and instabilities in the Earth's crust. People might fear that somewhere like Basildon will end up under ten feet of bubbling lava. But in the end, it will be worth it.

Si

The Pros and Cons

Hawton Solar Farm

No running today as I had important cricket nets this evening, which I survived without having my thighs battered black, blue, and now green. So just to keep my legs moving, I had a gentle cycle in rather a cold wind out to Cotham and back, to take in what I might see in the paddocks.

Well, there was nothing of note, the birds were presumably wary of the people who were doing horse type work in the southern paddock, and the northern one was empty. Luckily, there were some artificial sights worthy of note.

Hawton Solar Farm came online in 2011, before the government slashed the subsidy available for renewable solar energy projects, and at the time was the largest solar energy station in the country. I could drone on about its vital statistics, luckily a sign I photographed will do that for me.

What I will say, having cycled past it many many times, is that I consider it a wonderful, futuristic sight and not at all a blot on the landscape as renewable projects are usually regarded; I feel the same about wind farms. On a sunny day, I often mistake it for the pond at Cotham Flash, as it glows mirage like in the distance. Yet at close range it is pretty discretely hidden behind roadside hedges.

Of course, I am a writer, a man with imagination, and I find it easy to think of Scaramanga's solar powered weapon in "The Man with the Golden Gun", or that it could be transported to the moon or Mercury for a futuristic base, or its reflected rays used to defeat a rampaging Godzilla.

I like the future, and futurism. There is no reason why they can't go hand in hand with green space, or in residential development.

Given the dismal low quality shoebox housing being crammed into every nook and cranny in town, the future cannot come quickly enough.

Si

The dry facts of the place

Not a bad day for solar generation

Panels stretch into the far distance

This horse generates no electricity, but then, neither do I

Keeping the wagtails away!