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Heat From Earth’s Core Could Power Our Society

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Geothermal energy is an ancient technology that’s on the cutting edge in the here and now. It’s clean, it’s cranking 24/7, and it’s potentially hugely abundant. This is harnessing the heat emanating from deep in the Earth to power our homes and businesses. Right now, the United States is the world’s number-one producer of electricity from geothermal sources, but it still makes up just 0.4 percent of our total electricity generation, and 2 percent of renewables.

There’s a lot of room to grow, because so far it’s been geographically limited to the kind of landscapes where you’d find geysers and hot springs, where the hot water and rock is close to the surface. But some smart people are working on “enhanced geothermal systems,” which will allow us to exploit the energy underfoot across the country, all with a carbon impact that is vanishingly small compared to most sources we depend on now. One of those people is Lauren Boyd, who runs the EGS program at the Department of Energy. In the video above, she helps explain what geothermal could look like as part of the energy mix of the future: a “firm power” source that could help fill the void as we transition away from coal, oil, and gas.

Headshot of Jack Holmes

Senior Staff Writer

Jack Holmes is a senior staff writer at Esquire, where he covers politics and sports. He also hosts Useful Context, a video series.

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