Text: Jiang Qingtong
Editor|Jiang Qingsheng
Preface
Energy is inseparable from human beings throughout their lives, and at present, whether it is natural gas or oil, these are non-renewable energy sources.
Although these non-renewable energy sources have been searched for, they will be used up one day, and what will we humans do when that time comes?
Ever wondered if there was an inexhaustible source of energy in the world? This problem is no longer imaginary, but now there are signs of it.
And the United States has now begun to develop this endless energy source, and if this energy is used on a large scale, then in the next 2.3 billion years or so, human beings will not need to worry about energy, what is this energy, can it really reach this point?
The United States has already started to run out of endless energy?
This endless source of energy is geothermal energy, and we have said above that the United States is now developing it, and this is true, and the United States is still the most widely used thermal energy source.
According to current statistics, 30 states in the United States have used geothermal energy, and geothermal energy in the United States is mainly used for electricity generation and heating, but the two main ones are power supply.
The United States was one of the first countries to use geothermal energy, and it has been at the forefront of the world since the middle of the last century.
By the end of 2015, geothermal energy in the United States had become a major component of their power system, with a total installed capacity of 4,436 megawatts, equivalent to 1.2 percent of the entire United States' electricity.
However, because geothermal power generation is very affected by the terrain, and the cost of upfront investment is also very high, which is relatively low compared to other power generation, it has not been used by the United States military before.
But in 2023, according to a report by Guangming.com, the U.S. military is ready to use geothermal energy, and they are ready to use new mining technologies to accelerate the expansion of geothermal energy plants, mainly for military and emission reduction, and strategy.
On the military side, if the traditional power supply is followed, there will be more than 300 power outages per year, which will be very dangerous, because after the power outage, the US military will have no way to predict the potential risk of cyber attacks.
However, if geothermal energy is used in the U.S. military, it can fully ensure the uninterrupted power supply of key equipment of the U.S. military for 24 hours.
According to the analysis of foreign media, it is said that vigorously developing geothermal energy can help the US military improve the reliability and flexibility of palace support, but the current technology is not so perfect, and it may be that their development project will be as long as 7 or 10 years.
What is geothermal energy?
The earth itself is actually a huge source of heat, not to mention that the temperature on our surface is not high, but the temperature inside the earth is extremely high, so high that it can even melt the rocks and form magma.
This magma forms the mantle layer beneath the earth's surface, and what we mean by geothermal energy is the thermal energy inside the earth, which needs to continuously transfer heat outward through the mantle.
In the event of an earthquake, the energy in the earth's interior will be emitted from the cracks in the earth's crust, and a more appropriate case is the hot spring, the kind of natural hot spring, although it is rare, but this is a typical geothermal resource.
There is a constant temperature layer on the surface of the earth's crust, and our daily facilities, whether water pipes or natural gas pipelines, are buried in this layer, which can effectively prevent these pipelines from being exposed to the sun and causing explosions.
The areas where we need geothermal energy development are mainly in the geothermal anomaly area, where the temperature in this area has increased significantly compared with others, and the easier point to find is in the seismic zone or volcanic zone, which is a good place to develop geothermal energy.
Yellowstone National Park in the United States is a very good development area, where there are the largest volcanic craters on the earth, more than 10,000 hot springs, fumaroles and other natural landscapes, it can be said that it is very rich in geothermal reserves.
After knowing this energy source, how to develop it is also a big problem, so a new microwave drilling technology has emerged.
New microwave drilling technology
Geothermal resources are inexhaustible, but it is not easy to develop, and in 1970 the Soviet Union already had the idea of developing geothermal energy, and at that time customized a plan to dig through the earth.
At that time, I didn't think it was very difficult, and the main reason why I said that digging through was that the Soviet Union thought that as long as you drilled a hole in the ground and kept digging it.
But I didn't expect that this hole was dug until 1983, when it couldn't be dug directly, at this time it had been dug to a depth of 12,000 meters, and it had reached this point, of course, the Soviet Union could not end, and after a year of adjustment, the Soviet Union continued to dig the plan.
But this time it took 10 years to dig again, and this time the Soviet Union directly abandoned this plan, the main reason is that it took 10 years to dig only 226 meters, and the Soviet Union finally knew that this was not so easy to plan, and this energy was really not easy to take.
And in January 2022, the British "Daily Report" published a news report, in which a technology company in the United States has developed a technology called "wave drill" for microwave drill bits, which can break the current drilling limits of human beings.
This news is even more exciting, you must know that the depth of geothermal energy is basically 20,000 meters below, where the temperature can exceed 300 degrees Celsius, and so far, the deepest borehole can reach about 12 kilometers, which is far from 20,000 meters.
And now the invention of this technology can effectively use the super wind wave high-frequency thrust technology to shatter the rock, so that the metal drill bit and the rock are not in contact, which is very good to protect the drill bit.
The main reason why it was 12 kilometers before was that the rock became harder the further down the rock, and the drill bit was easily damaged and fractured when it entered this stage, but with this drill bit, there was no need to worry about the problem of fracture and damage to the head.
Geothermal resource development in China
Geothermal energy is a kind of renewable energy with abundant reserves, wide distribution, and reliability, and it can be seen from the report issued at the 2023 World Geothermal Congress that China's geothermal direct utilization has been ranked first for many years.
The geothermal resources of the mainland are also very rich, accounting for about one-sixth of the world, and the development of geothermal resources on the mainland can be said to have started late.
Since 2011, the China Geological Survey has carried out an assessment of China's geothermal energy resources, and the results show that the geothermal energy resources in the mainland are very abundant, and the amount that can be extracted is also huge, which is very valuable for exploitation.
In 2014, the mainland once again carried out meticulous exploration, and this time found that the concentration of geothermal energy on the mainland was in the northwest and southeast directions.
After figuring out everything, the mainland began to drill into geothermal energy, and at the beginning of the drilling of a well, and the depth of this well is 5200, and the temperature is about 190 degrees Celsius, which is not high in terms of geothermal energy.
However, if the mainland is used to generate electricity, this temperature is still enough, and the current geothermal energy used by the mainland is still in the direction of power generation, greenhouse planting and heating, and tourism and vacation.
And the mainland has now built a number of geothermal power stations, with a total installed capacity of 36,000 kilowatts, accounting for 5% of renewable energy generation.
Not only that, a lot of ground heating in the north of the mainland is heated by geothermal energy, and Tibet has built the Yangbajing geothermal power station in 1977, which is also the first industrial membrane geothermal power station in the mainland, and it is also an important part of Tibet's power generation system.
Of course, the important places in the mainland are important, in fact, in addition to power generation and energy supply, geothermal energy is also very precious in medical treatment.
Japan can be said to make the most of this aspect, and geothermal energy comes to the ground to become hot springs, and this hot mineral water is a good thing, and there are more than 1,500 hot spring sanatoriums in Japan, which attract many people to recuperate every year.
And these hot springs are different, such as sulfur ore and hydrogen springs, which can effectively treat neurasthenia, arthritis and even skin diseases.
Spring water containing carbonated water can effectively regulate stomach acid and balance the pH level in the body, and iron-containing water can treat human anemia, which is not a casual statement, and there is a historical record in the mainland that these use geothermal energy to treat diseases, and now these are now fully utilized, and have better development prospects.
Hot springs are now gradually becoming popular in China, which can be said that with the development of the economy, Chinese also have time to enjoy.
Of course, there are other uses, Africa has already used geothermal energy for farming, whether it is eel, tilapia or even giant river prawn.
Of course, I believe that geothermal energy can be used in more places than these, and we can say that the development of geothermal energy is still relatively small, and I believe that this renewable energy can be used to benefit more mankind in the future.
epilogue
Now we in China are already using this renewable energy, and I believe that in the near future, this renewable energy will hopefully replace non-renewable energy.
Refer to the article
On October 18, 2023, People's Daily reported that "the mainland's geothermal resources account for about 1/6 of the world's total, and the potential for development and utilization is huge-let geothermal energy "heat".
Guangming Network reported on April 8, 2024 that "Large Reserves, Wide Distribution, Clean and Environmental Protection, Huge Space for the Development and Utilization of Geothermal Resources in the Mainland".
Guangming Network reported on July 19, 2023 that "U.S. military bases plan to use geothermal energy".
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