Drilling in Yellowstone Could Save America | Hacker News Reader

Drilling in Yellowstone Could Save America

wsj.com

17 pointstemp896411 comments

From the article

>In 2014 the U.S. Geological Survey modeled the likely ash distribution from a Yellowstone super-eruption. They found that the ash radius would reach New York, with as much as 3½ inches of ash falling as far east as Lincoln, Neb. Cropland across the U.S. and Canada would be destroyed, and the release into the atmosphere of sulfate aerosols would create a global “volcanic winter” lasting generations.

>Fortunately, the JPL also points to a potential solution—horizontal drilling for geothermal energy extraction—that would siphon off excess energy, producing enough electricity to power as many as 20 million homes for a few thousand years at only 10 cents a kilowatt-hour. That’s less than Texans paid for electricity in 2019. Considering that the energy in the Yellowstone caldera is carbon-free, you have to wonder why we aren’t already doing it.

So to save the park, the US Government is willing to destroy the entire country/continent.

Clown world.....

Uh.... drilling horizontally into the caldera isn't going to set off an eruption. Doing that is actually beyond human technology.

> Uh.... drilling horizontally into the caldera isn't going to set off an eruption.

No one said drilling horizontally was going to set off an eruption. Indeed, they said the opposite: it could relieve pressure and prevent an eruption.

> Doing that is actually beyond human technology.

Many people -- indeed, here, NASA/JPL/Caltech and the article author-- think it's reasonably possible to extract a lot of energy from Yellowstone without much ecological impact, and perhaps to an extent that would delay the inevitable eruption.

Iceland harnesses their geothermal energy at a large scale, using it for 99% of their energy needs. It's certainly possible.

I guess the bigger problem for the US would be distribution. Is it feasible to transfer huge amounts of electricity from Wyoming to the coasts/midwest/south?

Wyoming produces a great deal of power for several states [1][2] and is the third highest producer/exporter of wind power and soon to have modern nuclear power plants. I want to say it already exports power to most of the mid-west and a few north western states but I don't have a specific list of states. Apparently there are some red-tape obstacles to make this happen at a larger scale. [3]

[1] - https://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=WY

[2] - https://www.wsgs.wyo.gov/products/wsgs-2012-electricalgenera... [PDF]

[3] - https://www.publicnewsservice.org/2017-05-11/energy-policy/w...

High-voltage DC links can already transfer gigawatts of power over a few thousand km. So it's within the realm of possibility.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-voltage_direct_current

As far as I understand, should Yellowstone erupt again, the whole world has other problems than missing electricity…

There is a documentary on it. [1] This assumes a VEI 8 which scientists are saying should not happen any time soon.

[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwd0cMDPZvg

Highly interesting idea. Why not try to harness the heat? Other possible question that needs an answer is, what to do if this idea has been realized working for generations at very large scale and that volcano erupts. Millions would suffer outages. We need fusion!

If the Yellowstone caldera erupts, simple power outages are the least of your worries. Large sections of North America will be rendered basically uninhabitable, and GLOBAL climate will be noticeably affected.

This is not just some ordinary, mountain-like volcano. Look up the area in Google Maps and imagine ALL of Yellowstone park as the mouth of a volcano to get a better sense of the scale. Several states will effectively lose all access to the sun for an extended period.

I realize it could get worse. But, if it's night, you need a light. It will be a apocalyptic catastrophe without doubts. What will be needed in case of eruption are decentralized power production and infrastructure for the areas not directly blown a mile up to be able to produce food & building site materials. Not everyone will survive. Without decentralization of power production, the danger of having not this and not that, the damage would be much more higher.

(Guess, I played to much C&C :) )

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