space solar / geothermal Energy

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, b wrote:
>
> Geothermal is good, but it has drawbacks and limitations just like every
> other form of electricity production.
the only seriouys drawback is a high installation cost. In every other measure Geothermal outperforms every other kind of energy we have available hands down. It is cheaper by order of magnitude than even solar, it is more accessible by order of magnitude than solar, it potentially can give us yields orders of magnitude larger than nuclear,

And its ecological foot print is orders of magnitude smaller than any other form of energy.

It isn't viable everywhere,
Yes, its viable almost everywhere, there is lava underneath the crust
no matter where you go on the surface of the planet. If we can dig nine miles deep for oil we can go five miles deep for lava heat and thats the deepest you would have to go almost anywhere.

Liars and con artists like to pretend that Geothermal is only accessible at hot spots. This is a smoke and mirrors distraction.

Yes, it is easier to access there, but that does not mean that we can't access it anywhere else.
> although the low temp kind would be very useful as a way to lower the
> electricity required for heating and cooling in most locations.
>
> Personally I think we'll end up with a mix of major electricity
> production systems, often aligned around areas where they are most
> suitable. eg Geothermal in active areas, OTEC in the tropics etc.
My plan as written includes other forms of energy in combination with geothermal. OTEC is very expensive compared to geothermal and could be disasters for local ocean ecosystems.

A small number of OTEC systems is not objectionable, but to compare to even one large geothermal power station you would have to make thousands of such installations.

>
> As for space solar, I would expect the first few built to be expensive,
> but then the costs should drop off due to the build up in experience,
> knowledge and infrastructure required to build them.

The cost drops off when we start using asteroid materials instead of importing things from earth up. Until then, space solar is a silly waste of time compared to getting serious infrastructure in space in order to obtain that cost drop off.