Cheap power for tomorrow: 5 projects
Tapping the sun, the oceans and the wind, these entrepreneurial ventures are actively pursuing new energy sources. Excerpted from The Plot to Save the Planet.
The start-up Geodynamics seems the furthest along in trying to build the world's first commercial, deep-underground geothermal plant. So far the Australian company, which has sunk more than $100 million into its Habenero project, is drilling holes into the hot, dry rocks some 3 miles beneath the surface of the barren lands of South Australia. The idea is that these cracks or breaks in the rock will allow water to seep through and become heated. A power plant on the surface would draw hot water out of this well, convert its energy into electricity, then pump the cooled water down a second well, establishing a flow of water through the underground reservoir.
Geodynamics hopes to have its plant up and running by 2010.
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