The most under-utilized of all currently available energy sources, geological heat, is a principal topic of this discussion. With all the attempts to move the energy delivery balance of the world away from fossil fuels the needle barely moved, and even that resulted in major as-of-yet unresolved questions related to intermittency of wind and solar energy, battery storage raw materials mining, processing, and disposal, nuclear power plant long development and construction time, and for many countries, exorbitant initial cost. The delivery of geological heat to the surface has many prior and current technological attempts, some of them could never scale, some of them demand supplies of precious water, some of them laden with technological challenges beyond todays state-of-the-art. The most recent efforts labeled “enhanced geothermal systems” (EGS) are striving to address some of those problems. Heat of a high temperature is needed for electricity generation, while heat at lower temperature can be used in direct applications e.g. district heating. Thus, more than one solution might eventually emerge from the current unprecedented effort towards delivery of commercially viable geological heat. With the parallel efforts of development towards revolutionary drilling technologies, high temperature sensors and electronic operating systems, the fulfillment of the dream of using the energy under our feet to address once and for all the sustainable, economically viable energy supplies at every place on Earth is around the corner.
Dr. Piotr d. Moncarz, is a Co-Founder and Vice Chair, and CEO for the initial years of XGS Energy, Inc., a company focused on closed loop harvesting and delivery of geological heat from very hot rock. He serves as Adjunct Professor at the School of Engineering and the School of Sustainability at Stanford University. He graduated from Road and Bridge Vocational School, Poznan, Poland; with a final Ph.D. degree from Stanford University. He joined California firm, Failure Analysis Associates, today Exponent, where he has worked on issues of engineering design and project analysis including risk management, failure prevention, and correcting project failures. As a corporate officer he participated in taking Exponent public and building it into a world‘s leading engineering and scientific consulting company. For over 30 years he has been actively involved in energy projects with international and domestic project development, plant restructuring, and acting in an advisory role in national energy policies in resurging economies. Passionate about delivering a solution to the keystone element of environmental, climate, and geo-political stability: ubiquitous, green, no water, no land-grab, 24/7 energy supply - GeoHeatTM (www.xgsenergy.com ). He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, Fellow of American Society of Civil Engineers, member of numerous US and international energy, environmental, and engineering societies, registered professional engineer in numerous U.S. states and provinces of Canada, educator and professional leader.
