Episode 14 The Power Beneath

Japanese people have loved bathing in hot springs for centuries.

The water is rich in minerals, and deeply relaxing.

It's not only humans who love taking a dip.

The country has an abundance of volcanos, and that means there's a great deal of heat underground.

It's known as geothermal energy.

It's clean, inexhaustible— and right now, underused.

We zero in on this natural wonder that could change our lives for the better.

Hello there and welcome to Zeroing In: Carbon Neutral 2050.

I'm Catherine Kobayashi in New York.

Nothing beats a nice hot soak, especially when it comes from clean energy.

We often hear about harnessing solar and wind energy, but there's also a viable source of power right under our feet.

It's called geothermal energy.

And a study suggests it could provide more than 8% of electricity in the United States by 2050.

That's a sizable 26-fold increase.

Greg Dalton, host of the talk show Climate One is here to tell us more.

- Greg, great to have you here.
- Good to see you, Catherine.

Well, geothermal is often viewed as a dark horse of clean energy, clean power.

How do we tap into this energy source?

Well, 'geo' means "earth," 'thermal' means "heat," you know, it's tapping the Earth's natural heat energy to move a turbine that generates electricity.

Much of the world's electricity is generated using fossil fuels, mainly coal and methane to boil water to make steam that moves a turbine that generates electricity.

Nuclear power plants also boil water.

They're basically big tea kettles, you know that flow of energy is stable, which makes geothermal a very nice complement to intermittent sources like wind and solar.

How much of our consumption is met by geothermal?

It rose about 50% globally from 2010 to 2020.

Globally, geothermal is so small. It's usually lumped together with other renewable resources such as waste to energy.

All those sources add up to about 2% globally.

It's geographically limited with about 27 countries using geothermal.

And mainly along the ring of fire, along the Pacific Rim and in Africa, in those areas, it's a steady source of reliable energy that complements wind and solar, which are intermittent.

California gets about 6% of its energy from geothermal.

Well let's look at that.

The US ranks number one for geothermal power generation and Northern California is a hotspot.

Our partners at Northern California Public Media went to find out more.

Six native American tribes once coexisted in this area.

It's called "The Geysers."

That was before the early explorers arrived in the 18th century.

They described it as the "gates to hell."

So the Geysers is a very unique area, and, it results primarily due to the intrusion of granite approximately 1.1 million years ago,

very near the surface in this part of California.

We have high heat content here and we have high pressure that are in the very near surface.

The area today is the world's largest geothermal power field— producing enough electricity for a city the size of San Francisco.

It's all thanks to the abundant energy about 2.5 kilometers below the surface.

The subterranean water meets rock as hot as 400 degrees Celsius, creating a geothermal reservoir.

The resulting steam is sent through the pipeline to the plants.

One benefit of geothermal - as clean as here in "The Geysers," is that we're a 24/7 operations, so we're not dependent on the wind blowing or the sun shining.

So we're a reliable baseload power.

Baseload power is the minimum amount supplied to an electrical grid at any given time.

It needs a constant and reliable energy source, which in many cases comes from fossil fuels or nuclear plants.

So this is where the steam comes in, you know, from all the different wells and the cross-type pipelines,

running through the yard and then into the turbine building.

So here's the simplified model of a power plant.

Energy from that steam spins the turbine, or, spins the generator, and then that power, electrical power, goes out on the grid, to our transformer.

Geothermal plants don't burn anything.

They use natural steam from the reservoirs.

Compared to a typical thermal fossil fired power plant we're approximately 5 to 10% of their CO2 emissions, in other words, 90 to 95% fewer CO2 emissions per megawatt hour.

But a few decades ago, the geothermal reservoir was losing too much water.

As the Geysers was developed in the seventies and eighties, there ended up being a large decline in steam production because of overuse of the steam.

Officials had to find a way to restore the reservoir.

We then introduced water injection of wastewater from the surrounding communities to sustain the reservoir.

Those communities include Santa Rosa.

At the time, residents in the city had serious concerns about the environmental impact of wastewater being discharged into the waterways.

That tank up there is the recycled water from the Santa Rosa Geysers Recharge Project.

Officials devised a plan to treat and utilize the wastewater.

They built a 68-kilometer pipeline to send it from Santa Rosa to the underground reservoir.

The benefits of that are that it has greatly minimized the decline in our steam production and, it gives the neighboring communities an environmental,

responsible way to dispose of the wastewater.

And the project has proved a real success.

Now, the recycled water produces enough power for about 100,000 households.

So Greg, whatever comes from the shower, sinks, and toilets in Santa Rosa helps keep the lights on.

What do you make of all this?

I've lived near that area for decades.

And I didn't know until I saw that video that wastewater was being reinjected into the magma to generate steam.

One concern about geothermal is its impact on freshwater; California is facing severe water shortages, and going forward, geothermal plants are gonna have to make the case

that water to energy is best use of that water rather than irrigation outdoors or something else.

And in Southern California, geothermal power comes with added benefits.

Firms in the sector are also extracting lithium.

The Imperial Valley in Southern California is home to Salton Sea.

As the name suggests, it's a really salty lake.

The shore is dotted with geothermal power stations.

They harness boiling brine, pumped up from underground.

It's packed with minerals.

Sodium, magnesium, iron, and crucially, lithium— essential for the batteries in electric vehicles.

This precious metal has even been dubbed "white gold."

Companies are now trying to extract it from the brine used for power generation.

My guess is this will end up being the largest lithium production site globally, once we fully develop it.

This firm is developing a facility for simultaneously generating power and extracting lithium.

Officials want it operational by 2024— to provide 20,000 tons of the mineral annually to a major US automaker.

Amanda Kolker is a Geothermal expert at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

She says the industry will be given a huge boost if any of the area's lithium projects go commercial.

It's not just an energy resource.

So it can provide power, but it's also a mineral resource.

The Salton Sea in the United States...

as the orders of magnitude: more solute than sea water.

It's taking off in that area, just because of the incredible resource there.

Neutralizing the value of heat, power, and minerals is certainly the business model that new facilities are going after.

Greg, California famously had a gold rush back in the 1800s.

Now there's another rush for this so called "white gold." What's your take on that?

Well, lithium is a vital ingredient to electrify our homes, electrify our cars, you know, that's taking a new urgency as California is moving ahead with plans

to ban the sale of new gasoline and diesel powered passenger vehicles in little over a decade.

And we often think of electric vehicles as clean tech, and they are better and cleaner than fossil fueled cars and trucks.

The best battery technology today does require lithium, and that lithium has to come from somewhere.

And mining and processing is an inherently environmentally damaging and destructive process.

One important thing about the Salton Sea is that the community welcomes the lithium industry coming there.

Unlike some other areas where that's not the case.

Geologists have estimated there's enough lithium in this one area to supply 40% of the world's needs.

So this could be a really big deal.

The technology isn't totally proven yet, but if it does work out, producing lithium and geothermal energy together in this one place can be really powerful and economic.

- Economics matters to everyone.
- Indeed.

Residents of a small hot spring town in Japan are reaping the benefits of everything geothermal energy has to offer.

Japan is said to have the world's third-largest geothermal potential after the US and Indonesia.

But it's mostly untapped.

That's because about 80% lies within national parks and other areas where regulations are tight.

But, the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in 2011 forced a rethink.

The government has since been focusing more on promoting renewables.

In 2015, authorities relaxed regulations— potentially unlocking 70% of the nation's geothermal resources.

Yuzawa in Akita Prefecture is well down that path already.

It's an area rich in geothermal resources.

The city currently has two power plants online, and there are plans to build three more.

Geothermal not only gives the locals their electricity.

It also empowers their community, by providing all sorts of opportunities.

Take Sato Akira.

For the past eight years, he's been hydroponically growing vegetables utilizing heat from the hot spring.

It warms the air as it flows down this pipe.

It's about 65 degrees Celsius.

It keeps the greenhouse about
13 degrees warmer than outside.

So if it's freezing out, it's roughly 13 in.

What's more, it's a bargain.

This natural resource costs Sato about 40 dollars a month.

You can really minimize fuel
and water expenses.

I think many of us see this as
more financially viable.

Sato is passionate about delivering fresh produce, no matter the weather.

Yuzawa lies in one of Japan's snowiest regions.

Without geothermal, growing vegetables in winter would be almost impossible.

I sell my produce locally.

When people tell me
they enjoyed the vegetables, it really brings me joy.

This milk factory in Yuzawa is another hive of green energy.

It's Japan's first geothermal-powered dairy pasteurization plant.

It was the brainchild of Takahashi Makoto.

It was about 35 years ago.

The local inns were using
hot spring water from the well.

There'd be some left over.

And I thought it was a waste
to dump it in the river.

So I started using it to pasteurize milk.

This is the raw milk.

We're using the water to
heat it to 65 degrees Celsius.

The geothermal water is hotter than 90 degrees.

It's piped in directly from source, and used to warm the tap water, which is then fed into a pipe that runs around the tank.

In summer, the inside of the plant gets pretty steamy too - often more than 30 degrees.

It's extremely hot in here!

The milk is pasteurized at 65 degrees for half an hour.

Processing slowly at this relatively low temperature helps retain the proteins and flavor.

Our customers say
it has a distinct flavor.

And whether it's our milk or our soft serve, people say they can't find
stuff like this anywhere else.

Hearing their nice words...
it's the best.

There is also a facility that gives local residents the opportunity to tap into the geothermal resources.

Here, the heat is used to dehydrate locally grown fruit and vegetables.

These are dehydrated tomatoes.

Farmer Sato Kumiko often brings in her unsold produce.

These are tasty as is.

But they are also great in
curry or beef stew.

The food is sold as local specialty products in nearby farmer's markets and supermarkets.

These are an important source of income for the local farmers during the chilly winter months.

This is dehydrated apple.
It's quite popular.

This year they sold really well
at a local supermarket.

Having this dehydrator is great.
It may not be a big moneymaker, but selling these products
brings in a little extra.

So we all come here to use it.

We're harnessing the energy
from the magma underground.

I'm grateful.

Greg, people have long been using geothermal energy to heat water.

We know this, but, the way the locals in Yuzawa utilize their ground source is no less impressive.

It's really creative. I'd never thought of using geothermal power to pasteurize milk or dehydrate vegetables.

It's encouraging to see these local entrepreneurs using local renewable energy rather than fossil fuels.

So we saw small scale examples, but can geothermal energy satisfy large scale demand for heating?

Well, in Europe, geothermal is used for heating and cooling houses...

Iceland, the Land of Fire and Ice is a special case and they have expanded geothermal and replaced oil for heating buildings.

Sounds like a good thing. So why isn't geothermal more widespread?

It is a good thing. And it isn't more widespread for several reasons.

Technologies have been stagnant for decades, it hasn't advanced like wind and solar.

The upfront costs are high, demand has been flat.

And geothermal resources sometimes occur in protected places, as we saw in Japan, and in the United States tax credits have been on again off again...

We should also be careful about some of the newer geothermal technologies, Enhanced geothermal works like fracking injecting liquids into the rock at high pressure to

fracture rock so that the water can reach the heat to create steam.

And this can cause earthquakes. So the key is to be safe and economic.

That's a good point, Greg.

Researchers in Japan are developing technology that not only reduces the costs, but also pinpoints the most powerful sources of geothermal energy.

In February this year, officials at the Tokyo Institute of Technology announced the discovery of a natural resource with the potential to yield vast amounts of energy.

Together with researchers from Tohoku University, they successfully rendered the location of a supercritical geothermal system in the mountains of Yuzawa.

This reservoir is extremely pressurized, and extremely hot.

It’s believed they can offer several times more energy than conventional geothermal resources.

Professor Ogawa Yasuo led the study.

He now works with Tohoku University to conduct geophysical surveys using electromagnetic waves.

The researchers have been busy out in the field.

They’ve been analyzing data to produce a detailed map of what lies beneath.

Conventional geothermal resources are usually found at temperatures
lower than 300 degrees Celsius.

But supercritical geothermal resources
are found at upwards of 400 degrees.

That means more energy.

They’re extremely efficient
sources of power.

More supercritical geothermal systems are believed to exist in Japan.

If development can progress, then high-output power plants could play a significant roll in meeting Japan's future energy needs.

Greg, what do you think of these advancements?

Well, geothermal is underutilized, and that drives home the point that we have clean available energy.

We need to get off fossil fuels fast and we have the alternatives at our feet.

It's not as easily available in many parts of the world as wind and solar, but where it is, we should be using it.

Geothermal also offers a pathway for companies and workers to transition from oil to clean energy.

The drilling and piping equipment, and processes are similar to some of that oil extraction.

The US Department of Energy is planning up to 165 million dollars in new investment in geothermal that would utilize the expertise from oil and gas and move it away from fossil fuels.

But as we know, geothermal energy is location specific.

Not everyone reaps the benefits directly.

It is location specific, however, it has an important role to play— it is steady, reliable baseload power, and that has a role to play with intermittent sources like wind and solar, and others.

And the more important thing is how we can tailor what's around us to meet our energy needs and build a clean future.

Thanks very much for your insights, Greg.

Thank you.

We'll leave you with a geothermal energy project in East Africa.

Japanese experts are powering through to make all the difference.

Kenya's economy has grown six-fold in the past 20 years.

In turn, demand for electricity is on the rise.

A big part of the answer lies with geothermal power.

Olkaria volcano is about 100 kilometers from Nairobi in a national park known as "Hell's Gate."

It's home to Africa’s first geothermal plant.

A Japanese firm makes most of the turbines.

They are very good. They have very low maintenance cost.

The facility was developed with support from the Japanese government.

If the people of Kenya can accumulate
the right knowledge and technology, then Nairobi and Olkaria can become
exemplary in the field of geothermal energy.

Kenya ranks fourth in terms of global geothermal potential, one place behind Japan.

But development is costly, and virtually impossible without international help.

The Japanese government started lending money to Kenya after the turn of the millennium, and providing technical support from 2013.

It really paid off. By 2020, Kenya was getting 44% of its power from geothermal energy.

The country also ranked 5th in terms of capacity worldwide.

We have the potential of 10 thousand megawatts.

So, if you would develop all of it, we will be able to not only have enough to consume locally, but we can also be able to export to other countries.

Kenya is teeming with wildlife.

And thanks to international support, these beautiful beasts can live in harmony with the country’s growing energy needs.