[doug]

"Fracking" can cause earthquakes, but that's not the same as geothermal energy recovery.

 

[gristle]

No, there is no proof that fracking can cause earthquakes. There is a fear that fracking can cause earthquakes.

 

[doug]

No, there is no proof that fracking can cause earthquakes. There is a fear that fracking can cause earthquakes.

How do you feel about geothermal drilling causing earthquakes?

 

[vz64]

Just goggle up 'geothermal seismic activity' or read the wiki article on 'Induced seismicity' (they have references). There's a fair amount of information out there on this phenomena. Most of the resulting earthquakes associated with it are small although there are a few instances of more powerful quakes which also happened in previously stable geological regions. Researchers are pretty confident though, that in the future they will be ably to largely eliminate or mitigate such events.

I think you are mixing a geothermal electric station that rely on heat from tectonic plate activities and a geothermal pump, which extracts heat using the earth constant temperature.

 

[vegeta_skyline]

I'm not mixing the two up as I was specifically referring to geothermal power stations as was Paleo.

 

[vz64]

I'm not mixing the two up as I was specifically referring to geothermal power stations as was Paleo.

Well, then the effect of these electrical geothermal stations should be negligible considering that they only contribute a fraction of total electrical power. I am referring to a geothermal heat pump as a way to trim heating and cooling energy by more than 50%. Our electrical bills for cooling in this summer were around 30$. The technology is simple (a bit costly initially) and can be used in any commercial/residential building.