But as with any big industrial project, geothermal energy production also carries some environmental risks. The biggest issues revolve around water. Brackish waters drawn from deep underground are sometimes laced with toxic substances like mercury, so power producers have to be very careful with how they store and dispose it. To cool their working fluid, some geothermal power plants withdraw large amounts of surface water. In areas where fresh water is scarce, these plants may compete with farms and homes that need water for irrigation, bathing, and the like—but that’s a problem for other kinds of power plants, as well.

There are several different ways to go about obtaining geothermal energy or drilling Geothermal wells. The only means which I personally advocate is exclusive to other technologies and is in some senses probably somewhat more expensive over the short term. However, the alternatives will prove to be more expensive over the long term, and to have assorted negative consequences. The only good way to do geothermal power is to drill a conventional well using conventional standard drilling technologies, and then to build closed circuit double loop systems. What this means is that firstly, an actual linear well is drilled straight down into the earth, secondly, that the water which is heated to power the system never leaves the piping which contains it, and thirdly, that water is circulated down on one circuit or loop and rises as steam on a second circuit or loop.

The Alternative being now explored is to use water as an explosive, and to drill non linear wells by pumping water into rock. This creates many small fractures or fissures in the rock, rather than a straight down conventional well. It also can cause earthquakes,is prone to the problem of erosion, and is likely to create a geothermal system which cools very quickly, especially when compared to closed circuit double loop. Claims made about such systems that they are closed systems are obviously false, if the water leaves the tubes then there is obviously potential for that water to leave the geothermal system. Another issue to consider is that a closed circuit double loop system never loses water and never loses pressurization. The systems which they are now creating are highly entropic, and while they may for the time being demonstrate properties of a closed system, they are certainly not truly closed.

So can extracting oil and mining for coal.

There is a good chance CCS will cause some earthquakes, too.