Bavaria is Using the Earth as a Giant Battery

Source: Ewan Thomson | · SPECTRA · | May 19, 2023

As the world looks for ever more inventive ways to decarbonize, a small town in Bavaria will soon be using the Earth like a giant rechargeable battery.

It doesn’t matter if it’s day or night, windy or calm, winter or summer; the town of Geretsried will receive a constant baseload of electricity — and eventually heat for its district grid — thanks to “closed-loop” geothermal technology.

Perhaps most significantly, a system like this could be launched almost anywhere, potentially marking the end of the geographical lottery of geothermal availability.

Barriers to geothermal energy

Geothermal is a renewable energy source that humans have used for thousands of years, but we are only just beginning to unlock the full commercial potential of underground heat.

Perhaps the biggest stumbling block for the rise of geothermal energy has been the initial drilling cost. Drilling one 4km-deep well can cost several million dollars, and on average, only half of the first exploration wells are successful. Finding a hot underground aquifer and extracting the liquid is not easy.

Another major issue has been that the conditions required for harnessing the power of geothermal only appear in a few places around the world, usually where there is a lot of tectonic activity.