Friday, August 22, 2008 , Updated
Google.org gives $489,521 to SMU’s geothermal lab
More power to them. (And to us.)
The philanthropic arm of Google (Google.org) announced this week that it will donate $489,521 to the Southern Methodist University Dedman College of Humanities' Geothermal Lab, indicating that they feel the lab's geothermal mapping project will be key to the exploitation of "under-the-radar alternate energy technology."
This illustration shows how a tweety bird might be utilized for energy production. (Thusfar, Rube Goldberg has not been awarded any money, but stay tuned.)
While existing (i.e., traditional) geothermal plants rely upon tapping naturally occurring steam and hot water vents to power their turbines, SMU's mapping of potential geothermal sources would allow for a broader-based approach, involving drilling into hot rock, circulating the water around down there and pumping the naturally-heated water and steam back to the surface.
Also feasible might be the tapping of geothermal energy from existing oil and gas wells - in which case, no drilling required.
More power to you, Dedman Geothermal Lab - and, hopefully, to us.
posted by JM
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