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John Smillie @johnsmillie42.bsky.social · 6h

My Great Gandmother spanned Teddy Roosevelt to Obama

John Smillie @johnsmillie42.bsky.social · 7h

www.canarymedia.com/articles/off...

Dominion (VA offshore wind) got their ship, and Equinor (NY Empire Wind), uh, might not. Though it would be very strange not finish delivery on a 95%+ complete project.

No ship? New York offshore wind project faces yet another hurdle

Equinor’s embattled Empire Wind project was banking on a new ship to install turbines. The vessel is almost 99% complete, but now the shipbuilders are…

www.canarymedia.com

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John Smillie @johnsmillie42.bsky.social · 7h

God, we are so screwed for the next pandemic

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John Smillie @johnsmillie42.bsky.social · 10h

Very easy to eat up 50MW at a steel mill

John Smillie @johnsmillie42.bsky.social · 12h

Heat is harder to move, so doing fracking right next to a town or industrial facility would be required for Fervo. Closed loop geothermal like XGS and Eavor are more well suited.

John Smillie @johnsmillie42.bsky.social · 12h

Somewhere between Manhattan (still quite noticeable) and Whittier, AK, where everyone lives in one building.

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John Smillie @johnsmillie42.bsky.social · 13h

He also claims to be able to eliminate T&D costs, which isn't really the case unless you are an on-site user who can absorb the 30-50MW minimum viable scale...

Less T more likely than less D, though doing district heating could certainly avoid D build out.

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John Smillie @johnsmillie42.bsky.social · 13h

Heat pumps get them close for low temp, but can create expensive demand spikes and may necessitate large distribution grid (or building efficiency) build out. The more heat you take off of the electric grid's plate, the better.

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John Smillie @johnsmillie42.bsky.social · 13h

I've heard a few pods with Araque. Here he mentions he believes they can be competitive with gas at $3/mmBTU for heat, which would be huge. Other renewables are competitive for electricity, but not high temp heat.

David Roberts @volts.wtf · 17h

Today on Volts: geothermal startup Quaise is using microwaves to pulverize rock, drill down miles, & access levels of heat that cause water to go supercritical, so it holds exponentially more energy. The promise is geothermal power with 10X the productivity -- enough to lure FF giants into the biz.

Super-deep geothermal drilling ... with microwaves

I talk with Quaise CEO Carlos Araque about a technology that could persuade the oil and gas industry to drill for heat instead of fuel.

www.volts.wtf

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John Smillie @johnsmillie42.bsky.social · 14h

yeah fair, rock grinding is quite simple, probably only makes sense as a byproduct of another application vs. doing it the old fashioned way

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John Smillie @johnsmillie42.bsky.social · 14h

Listening to it now and one of the byproducts seems to be efficiently pulverized rock. Perhaps a tool for efficient ERW?

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John Smillie @johnsmillie42.bsky.social · 15h

Mainly going off my knowledge from listening to Araque on other pods lol

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John Smillie @johnsmillie42.bsky.social · 15h

On one level, thats the prob with all tech. On another, I think the millimeter wave drill poses significant advantages over conventional technology at deeper, hotter areas where you are already past oil and gas. It's also not going to help you frack. Possible ignition risk as well?

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John Smillie @johnsmillie42.bsky.social · 16h

I'm generally of the opinion that coalition building works best by having the most narrowly defined interest that you can have in common amongst the most people.

So not so much "climate is part of the progressive ur-cause" as "we all have common cause against Trump's lawlessness".