How high maintaiance is geothermal energy?I'm trying to build a post-post apoc setting and trying to go for relatively resilient energy sources. I'm currently mostly doing coal, wood and wind. Any pointers welcome.
Depends on the system. Many involve hot water, which is ironically an incredibly dirty substance that rapidly picks up impurities and becomes either intensely caustic or leads to scale buildups, which leads to a reduction in service-life of many parts. Most of the older geothermal heating systems used in Norway suffer extensively from issues with using hot water.It ultimately comes down to questions of cost. You could theoretically build a perfectly enclosed system with treated pipes and maybe even use some alternative working fluid, and then you would only need to replace the moving parts in the turbine/generators (assuming no other points of failure come from manufacturing/use). The more spent up-front, the less maintenance needed, but with the relatively low-returns of geothermal energy, most systems tend to be far from ideal.
>>98023007As far as I am aware, the main limiting factor is the initial setup. To reach boiling temperatures consistently, you have to drill down 3-4KM. Thats doable, but a serious engineering task.However, once the initial construction is done? All you are doing is running water through pipes. *eventually* those pipes will degrade and repairs or replacements will become necessary, but with proper materials for the task that shouldn't happen anytime soon.Something like an earthquake could fuck your system up in a hurry, however. Repairs will not be easy. At that depth, the soil itself is boiling temperature and you also have to deal with the pressure. You probably need to have some kind of robot to do the repair work on your behalf.
>>98023007Well, it's going to be at least as demanding as coal since they would use the same turbines. The big issue for me is that geothermal seems vulnerable to earthquakes and works best in earthquake prone areas, and can also make earthquakes more common. The big win for wind is that once you have electricity you can make shitty turbines pretty much anywhere at nearly any scale. All you need for one is a conductive wire and a magnet (you can make one if you have a wire)Actually, solar reflectors is probably a viable option too. A big enough array of mirrors or lenses will harvest a crazy ammount of energy. A solar forge would be well worth the investment if you didnt live on top of a surface coal/shale deposit
>>98023007Which game are you using this setting for?
>>98023007>I'm currently mostly doing coal, wood and wind. Any pointers welcome.Have your Raiders take over a landfill, siphon the gas to fuel your battle buses/airships, demand the leftover harvest waste and bodies from nearby settlements to fill your land of the dead, make up a drunk tall tale of the souls of the dead powering your vehicles. A generation later, the "Raiders" are a mix of religious order, highway police, gasogen refinery and public sanitation.https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2023/11/plastic-waste-in-the-fuel-tank/https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2010/01/wood-gas-vehicles-firewood-in-the-fuel-tank/https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2011/11/gas-bag-vehicles/http://douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/TRANSPORT/gasbike/gasbike.htmhttp://douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/TRANSPORT/prodcar/prodcar.htmhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middenhttps://web.archive.org/web/20120227092409/http://www.snvworld.org/en/ourwork/Pages/Renewable%20Energy.aspxhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highwaymanhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_hypnosishttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurgan
>>98023058>Depends on the system.Reee, etc.
