Disclaimer: I work in this field.<p>This is a very brief, high-level overview. It weirdly dives deep into some less-relevant topics and glosses over a LOT of things.<p>It is not irrelevant, but not terribly reliable either. The "Mathematics" in the title is self-evidently clickbait.<p>YMMV.
The general shape of geothermal, where you're up here where it's cool, and you push a fluid down there where it's hot, and you bring the heat back up here to do work... Would a good enough insulator make it thermodynamically feasible to do it from an airship in the Venusian atmosphere?<p>Like, clearly Earth's crust supports temperature gradients which are steep enough to make the juice worth the squeeze. Presumably you're not going to find gradients so steep in the case of a runaway greenhouse effect, but whatever gradients you do find, are there fundamental limits preventing them from being steep enough?
Wish geothermal energy was being discussed more for a power source for data centers.<p>Iceland has unlimited geothermal energy and a cold climate. Seems a lot easier than going to space for solar energy
In Michael Lewis book Boomerang [0], there is a chapter about Iceland and he mentions geothermal.<p>My understanding:<p>- b/c of geothermal, huge amounts of electricity are available for low cost<p>- Iceland being an island makes it VERY expensive to build/transport goods back and forth<p>- The above combo means that aluminum smelting is the only industry where the electricity availability outweighed the costs of transport and being on an island.<p>0 - <a href="https://amzn.to/4j8r3bO" rel="nofollow">https://amzn.to/4j8r3bO</a>
It’s hard to come up with any idea that is not easier than going to space for solar energy.
I was interested until I saw the picture for labor month was a clearly generated picture with protest signs saying “Workers Unit” instead of “Workers Unite”.<p>Does that mean everything in the site is bogus or low-effort? No, but it means I don’t want to potentially waste my time or be misled.
I think i just saw Fervo delivered their 100MW facility a day ahead of schedule in 23 months.