Google wants to drill Earth

In an interesting form, Google has proved itself, which is one of the largest consumers of electricity in the world. Recently, it has become the de facto largest US investor in research in the field of geothermal energy.

Geothermal Energyinvolves the production of electricity from steam from superheated waters, which are underground close to the red-hot layers of the crust. Theoretically, anywhere on Earth, you can drill a well three to five kilometers deep - and a powerful steam jet will immediately fall out of it, directly onto which steam turbines can be installed. All that remains is to make a reservoir there and add water from above to this eternally hot “pan”. The problem is that in practice no one has yet begun exploiting hot underground rocks, although such attempts are being made in the USA, Japan, Australia and Europe. Successful projects so far succeed only in the forces of nature, which we see on the example of geysers and volcanoes.

The Google.org division transferred about $ 11 million for geothermal exploration, including $ 6.25 million invested in the AltaRock Energy startupand $ 4 million to Potter Drilling . Another half a million was allocated to cartographers to compile a more accurate map of geothermal energy sources (these maps in the United States have not been updated since 1974).