Two recent geothermal articles show the diversity of geothermal technologies gaining recognition all over the world!
This article describes a 20 MWth project in Vienna set to provide district heating to 20,000 households through a system of ‘underground geothermal highways’, with plans to expand to over 200,000 homes within decades. Direct heat systems are the most mature and accessible forms of geothermal heat use, and its expansion will drastically reduce the carbon footprint of residential to city-wide scale heating and cooling.
And this piece highlights the dual-commodity attributes of geothermal electricity generation, as lithium is often present in geothermal brine. This element is in skyrocketing demand, but our current form of lithium extraction, primary lithium salars and evaporation ponds is far from environmentally sound. Its extraction from geothermal brine is not only far cleaner, but much faster, taking only hours rather than weeks.