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Comment by Theodores | Hacker News Reader

If it is that hot down at the bottom - ~200 degrees C depending on where the bottom is, is there no way to economically generate power with some type of steam turbine dropped down the hole? If you could get the steam turbine to power the drill then you could make it all the way to 'China' by teatime...

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Doing it at all, economically or otherwise, is something that is being worked on this very year:

http://iddp.is/

Summary article here:

http://theconversation.com/drilling-surprise-opens-door-to-v...

Isn't that what Geo-thermal energy is :) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_energy ? Hot springs are the same thing, only the conductor is water.

I believe the last time something like that was contemplated the analysis was that the energy you could extract would make for very very slow going (not surprisingly it requires a lot of energy to bore through rock and remove the excess). Assuming a return pipe to the surface the deeper it is the higher the boiler pressure you can support since you can use the cold water return column to pressurize the feed. Of course at some point your at the limit of your boiler as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_power

> If you could get the steam turbine to power the drill then you could make it all the way to 'China' by teatime...

You can't because to generate power you need both a hot side and a cold side, and this drill would only have a hot side.

That would be a heat pump: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_pump

Not a heat pump, simply a heat engine (if you're taking the work) or heat source (if you're using the heat). "Pumping" implies going against the gradient.

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