[SHiFTY]

So really the limitation to geothermal is deep drilling, something the world has got a lot better at..

Wouldn't it be a pretty much unlimited source of energy? Just drill some really deep holes, shove down some water pipes and set up some steam turbines? Would it be possible to provide untold gigawatts this way, and for cheap???

Reagarding NZ: I've been to Wairakei, way cool I thought that NZ had pretty much exhausted its geothermal resource, perhaps not yet

[Curmudgicus]

Great thread - and only one flamer.

There is a participant on this website whose subtext always reads - "Peak Oil is not an energy crisis, it is a liquid fuel crisis." Most of the proposals on this thread have been great for large-scale fixed installations (I have another below), but are not usable in vehicles or aircraft. A high energy per unit mass liquid fuel or its equivalent is going to be needed for mobility. There may not be one. I've spoken with several scientists at BP about what's going to replace jet fuel (I'm a pilot). In the near term it's Fischer-Tropsch gas-to-liquid coal-derived fuel.

Along with hydro-thermal, take a look at hydro-mechanical. The moon raises and lowers the ocean quite a ways every 24 hours. The Japanese have already placed low-specific-gravity high-mass rafts on mounts to use tidal forces to drive hydraulic fluid through turbines in each direction. The Norwegians just sold a number of wave-action generators to Portugal.

[Graeme]

Curmudgicus, Thanks for your post. It is certainly interesting to see that Fischer-Tropsch GSL fuel will replace jet fuel in the short term. In the long term, its likely to be hydrogen.

Use of hydrogen as fuel
Hydrogen can be burned in a normal internal combustion engine, and some test cars are thus equipped. Trials in aircraft have also been carried out.

http://www.uic.com.au/nip73.htm

The above article suggests that hydrogen will be produced from nuclear energy. It could also be produced from the enormous geothermal resources in USA also. But there is a long way to go before this will happen. See my recent news posts on the first US hydrogen production plant in Idaho, and "a greener world - a possible dream" for time frame of 20-30 years for hydrogen to make a significant impact on oil dependency (this could well be shorter if a concentrated effort was made). Of course, fuel cell design will change over this period too.