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SkyNTP@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

Biomass and hydro* aren’t storage for intermittent power (*except pumped hydro). Rather they are natural sources of accumulated solar power that can be tapped on demand. In that sense, so is geothermal.

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heftig@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Isn’t geothermal mostly nuclear power?

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- SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Nah it’s friction from rocks banging into each other when the Earth was being formed. The surface of the Earth cooled down, but you dig down deep enough it gets really hot. Hot enough to melt rocks, or as the pros call it… “magma”. Dump some water down there and you get steam and you can drive a turbine with that steam. Though actual geothermal energy implementations are probably a little more complicated than that. But that’s the gist of it.
  
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  - heftig@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Well, Wikipedia claims
    
    The Earth has an internal heat content of 10^31^ joules (3×10^15^ TWh), About 20% of this is residual heat from planetary accretion; the remainder is attributed to past and current radioactive decay of naturally occurring isotopes.
    
    In that sense, it’s the only renewable energy source we have that’s not indirectly powered by the sun. It’s most similar to (proper) nuclear power, but the latter isn’t “renewable” because it requires digging up fuel from the crust.
    
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