The idea of drilling deep geothermal to repurpose existing fossil plants is an elegant one. I imagine others have thought of this before, but it was new to me. Being able to take over the existing equipment (turbines, power transmission connections) seems appealing.
Of course, it all depends on how expensive the drilling process is vs. the existing capital asset in the turbines, but maybe you could hit a price point where the repurposed geothermal plant is way cheaper than new solar / gas builds in the 2030s? This would be a transitional tailwind, just when we need it. Down the road, these plants would become more expensive because you'd also need to build new turbines/transmission lines. And at that time maybe solar or fusion is a cheaper solution (or not, who knows). But this could really help with the transition away from fossil fuels, if it was delivered next decade or two.
A question - does deep drilling like this have any downsides, as fracking does? I'm guessing it's less bad since you're not pushing pressurized fluid into the bedrock, instead you're just making a pipe that contains the water.
Of course, it all depends on how expensive the drilling process is vs. the existing capital asset in the turbines, but maybe you could hit a price point where the repurposed geothermal plant is way cheaper than new solar / gas builds in the 2030s? This would be a transitional tailwind, just when we need it. Down the road, these plants would become more expensive because you'd also need to build new turbines/transmission lines. And at that time maybe solar or fusion is a cheaper solution (or not, who knows). But this could really help with the transition away from fossil fuels, if it was delivered next decade or two.
A question - does deep drilling like this have any downsides, as fracking does? I'm guessing it's less bad since you're not pushing pressurized fluid into the bedrock, instead you're just making a pipe that contains the water.