“The decade of geothermal” is a phrase that is becoming increasingly common in media and energy industry gatherings as the international zero-emission push comes to include one of the most fascinating—and clean—ways of extracting energy from the earth: geothermal power. To reach the heat that the mantle of the Earth radiates into the core, geothermal companies need to drill—and they need to drill deep. In fact, one of the biggest challenges for this emerging industry is drilling deep enough to get to the really high temperatures: drilling so deep is risky and costly. Yet geothermal can do pretty well even at smaller depths. According to a recent analysis by Rystad Energy, to generate electricity from the vaporized water heated up in geothermal wells, a power generation facility needs temperatures of 240 to 300 degrees Celsius. The analysis adds that as much as 70 percent of geothermal output right now […]