of Civil Protection and Emergency Management , February 8, 2024, The massive amounts of thick, hot orange lava spewing from the Reykjanes volcano in Iceland reflects the massive amounts of heat and energy in the earth’s core. That’s heat and energy that geothermal energy systems capture to provide renewable, nearly-zero emissions energy to communities across the globe. The Energy Information Agency reports that geothermal energy emitsBut capturing it is, well, complicated.
“In a world where the US grid will need 700-900 GW of additional clean firm capacity by 2050, next-gen geothermal could provide. The DOE says that 90 GW of electricity-generating capacity is “enough to power the equivalent of more than 65 million American homes.” U.S. Energy Dept.- https://www.energy.gov/arctic/articles/minute-mike-launching-us-iceland-energy-partnership
At a Carbfix plant I visited in Reykjavik, we heard about geothermal plants in the U.S. that the Energy Department is funding .providing the larges share at 66.6% of the country’s geothermal, or 5.1% of the state’s total electricity, according to the Energy Information Agency.One of the hurdles of the transition to a clean energy economy is the potential impact on the fossil fuel workforce, including the risk that they will be left behind.