This is mind blowing ignorance on the part of Al Gore. Gore in an 11/12/09 interview on NBC’s tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, speaking on geothermal energy, champion of slide show science, can’t even get the temperature of earth’s mantle right, claiming “several million degrees” at “2 kilometers or so down”. Oh, and the “crust of the earth is hot” too.
Temperature of the sun’s corona: 1–2 million kelvin
Temperature of the sun’s photosphere: 6,000 kelvin
Temperature of the Earths mantle, more than “2 kilometers or so down”: between 500 °C to 900 °C (773 to 1173 kelvin)
Watching Gore make a complete scientific idiot of himself on national TV: priceless
Don’t believe me? Watch the video from NBC below:
For a faster presentation, without a pre-viewing commercial, here is the same video on YouTube
Oh…and here is a graph of the vertical temperature profile with drilling depth:
And here is the temperature profile of the Earth’s crust, mantle, and core:
Source: Electropaedia (Mpower UK) page on geothermal energy
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The Goreacle knows no controlling legal authority exists to rein in his excesses.
Which is unattractive but a good thing, IMHO, and ought to remain so.
* Reject Copenhagen
* Dissolve the U.N.
* Cap and Trade the U.S. Congress
* Live Free or Die
* Don’t Tread on Me
* Warmer is Better
mr.artday 16:02:11,
The place you were reading about was probably Chena Hot Springs.
Pretty clear now why Gore will never debate anybody on global warming. He has no grasp of reality or facts. The only thing missing is the big red nose and the floppy shoes.
A follow up to my earlier post – after a little research, I discovered that Al actually took in 1/2 of the total $1 million + dollars for the 2007 Nobel prize; the remaining 1/2 was split amongst the various and sundry IPCC researchers (presumably). Heh!!
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2007/
The only thing heating up is the compost pile of AGW error clippings.
That’s a lot of hot air, methane and backpeddling for the biggest perpetual motion machine ever invented.
Frank K.,
Al helped himself to half the loot?
Why am I not surprised?
Jon Jewett (07:17:33) : Gamow’s book, ‘One, Two, Three, Infinity’, is great for kids, read it at age of 12, changed my worldview forever after. It reveals the universe as a wonderment, through mathematics and physics.
Always helpful to bring a few numbers to the table.
There’s probably no better place on the planet for geothermal generation than `Iceland. Their government is keen to see it developed – they’ve been promoting the idea of a high voltage sub-sea interconnector cable to the UK, so that they can sell geothermally generated electricity.
As part of the promotion for this, the Icelandic government has estimated the potential output of geothermal stations using readily available steam sources (and hot rocks) –
“”Energy in Iceland – Historical Perspective, Present Status, Future Outlook” accessible via wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_power_in_Iceland
It’s 20TWh/yr; which is equivalent to about 2,300 MW.
For comparison, the proposed new nuclear stations at Hinkley Point and Sizewell here in the UK will generate 3,200MW EACH. Both sites have the space to double that. And eight more (with a possible three beyond that) have been identified, each with at least as much potential as Sizewell and Hinkley.
So, bear that in mind – the best sites in the world together can’t produce as much as a single medium sized nuclear development.
Alan the Brit (01:07:03) :
Being such a technically minded guy, didn’t Gore recently advise NASA that their new space rocket, at peak thrust on lift off would cause the engine to develop transverse thrust in the epicyclic torque condenser units resulting in both cordwangling of the falangy & excessive fibrilation of the phased flux converter? Or is it just me?
Alan
That sounds like a cross between Fred Wedlock, Rambling Syd Rumpo and Arnold J Rimmer to me. Oh, I see your point …
UPDATE:
Did a little more in-depth research RE: Gore in Seattle 18 NOV 09:
http://www.kuow.org/program.php?id=12897
While browsing also saw he is to speak later tomorrow in Portland, Oregon:
http://www.oregonlive.com/books/index.ssf/2009/08/al_gore_lectures_in_portland_o.html
FWIW….I would guess he will be greeted with hugs, kisses, and palm branches strewn upon the ground in his path in Portland, what?
Maybe a key to the city????
Sarcasm – I Love It!!
MCR
Roger Sowell (17:37:01) :
Fine, but that doesn’t alter the fact that geothermal isn’t risk free, nor is it widely available. Apart from the problems in the links I already posted, there are other concerns, like:
1. Availability.
http://www.pewclimate.org/docUploads/Geothermal-Fig1.jpg
With most of geothermal in the West, and only a fraction of what is there hot enough to generate electricity, what is the rest of the country to use? Many other sources of power will always be needed, even in areas where geothermal exists.
As you yourself pointed out, even where it’s available, it only supplies less than one twentieth of the total power. And, since it’s been around for so long, if it were economical it would have a much greater share of the market. In fact, from the data you gave, you can see that the market share has gone from 4.7% in 1997 to 4.2% in 2008. That’s hardly a booming industry.
2. Safety and Reliability.
Apart from the considerations I’ve linked to in my posts above, there’s also the inconvenient truth that accessible sources of geothermal heat are located near fault lines, not the safest places to be. And if a plant is destroyed in an earthquake, how long would it take to rebuild it and what source(s) of power would replace it until it’s restored?
Bottom line, like all other “green” energy sources, it can never be relied upon to supply all our power, nor can we be confident that it will invariably be available when needed.
I’m not saying it shouldn’t be used when possible, just that it’s no panacea.
Anyone check if Big Al’s made any investments in geothermal companies lately. Maybe this will be his next money maker like his “carbon credits” company. Pump and dump….
[blockquote]alaskabill (20:47:04) :
The Nobel committe must be so proud. [/blockquote]
The Nobel committee has no idea that this was on TV in the US, and if they had they would probably have agreed with what he said…
As scientific knowledge advances, newer and more amazing sources of power become known. To date, the greatest source of power known to science, by several orders of magnitude, is that unleashed from the atom. The amount of energy that is released from splitting an atom is 10**17 times greater than the amount of mass lost.
Knowing what we know, can somebody explain why were talking about trying to scrape heat out of the ground, or scavenge a trickle of power from the wind?
Simon (22:42:01) :
“Drill bits that can survive two million degrees of heat and steam that powers ‘turbans’.”
It would certainly take a lot of degrees to spin a turban like this:
http://scribalterror.blogs.com/scribal_terror/images/2007/04/10/turban_2.jpg
Or was that dungarees?
Whatever. Anyway, maybe we can get him to make one for Big Al to wear when he goes on the snake oil circuit, just to add a little of the mysterious orient to his routine.
AlGore is Partner of Kleiner Perkins that has invested in Alta Rocks that describe them selves as follows “AltaRock develops and commercializes geothermal technology to produce clean, renewable power”. Anyone surpirsed?
Anders
Al’s running scared. With the Lord Monckton video going viral, vs. Conan’s paltry viewership, it’s obvious that people are beginning to see Gore correctly as just another snake-oil selling fraud.
The old MSM game of running the talk show circuit doesn’t work so well with the Internet. Ironic, Gore’s own invention coming back to bite.
Vincent (11:56:14) :
Because the genie of nuclear fission makes deadly wastes, there’s a storage problem along with half-lifes/toxicity, and the spectre of nuclear material falling into the wrong hands.
Plus, anything with that much power carries with it a risk factor that is proportional to it’s yield. Fissionable material was created in nova/supernove implosions, as a direct testament to the unimaginable forces involved in the process.
That’s one big genie in such a small bottle.
Anybody that can stir that much panic out of thin air deserves the title of “Magician in Chief”.
Capo Trado Chango
rbateman (12:31:25) :
>Because the genie of nuclear fission makes deadly wastes,
>there’s a storage problem along with half-lifes/toxicity, and
>the spectre of nuclear material falling into the wrong hands.
>Plus, anything with that much power carries with it a risk
>factor that is proportional to it’s yield. Fissionable material
>was created in nova/supernove implosions, as a direct
>testament to the unimaginable forces involved in the process.
>That’s one big genie in such a small bottle.
As of 2008, France derives 90% of their electricity production from nuclear. The US generates 806 TWh, or almost 20% of all electricity generated. A tax from the electricity generated pays the US government to handle the waste.
Wikipedia says that between 1970 and 1992, there were 39 on the job deaths for nuclear power plan workers, 6,400 in coal production, and 1,200 in natural gas production.
I have a friend who is a particle physicist and says that nuclear power is extremely safe. I tend to believe him.
rbateman:
“Because the genie of nuclear fission makes deadly wastes, there’s a storage problem along with half-lifes/toxicity, and the spectre of nuclear material falling into the wrong hands.”
The same argument applies to Carbon Capture and Storage. Can you imagine the death toll if millions of tons of CO2 bursts forth from its underground containment to smother a local community? And imagine if CO2 falls into the wrong hands.
yonason, and other skeptics:
From Geothermal Resources Bulletin, Jan/Feb 2007, pg 90:
Geothermal power plants in 2005 provided substantial portions of national power in Costa Rica (15 pct); El Salvador (22 pct); Iceland (17.2 pct); Kenya (19.2 pct); Nicaragua (9.8 pct); and Philippines (19.1 pct).
Geothermal is a valuable resource, and as is the case with all resources, it is not equally distributed around the world. It works quite well and has done so for many decades. It has baseload capability, is not subject to being shut off due to importing fuel from other nations, and has zero fuel cost.
inre waste storage problems
I have been reading occasionally about the transmutation of nuclear waste, which neutralizes radioactivity on site at nuclear power plants. While it is hard for a nonphysicist to judge the inside baseball on these issues, and it is not without its critics, it looks like it has a lot of promise.
http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/node/305
http://www.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/rev26-2/text/radside1.html
Roger Sowell (13:09:23) :
“Geothermal is a valuable resource, and as is the case with all resources, it is not equally distributed around the world. It works quite well and has done so for many decades. It has baseload capability, is not subject to being shut off due to importing fuel from other nations, and has zero fuel cost.”
How about water?
Gore is obviously correct. The most cost effective solution to exploit our geo-thermal resources is to build a gigantic plant in the middle of the geyser zone at Yellowstone NP.