Technology Review has an article today about using fracking techniques to increase the efficiency of geothermal wells to produce electricity. The amount of energy available is almost endless, but with current technology we are unable to get a lot of power for the buck.
I remember learning in Earth Science class, in the ninth grade, that there was a lot of oil and gas in shale formations. At that time we did not know how to get it out, but there was faith in American technological advances, and free enterprise, that we would eventually learn to tap this energy source. That day has arrived, of course, through horizontal drilling combined with fracking. I have faith that this will happen with geothermal energy as well.
I am sure the anti-fracking folks will object. Science and engineering will provide the answers for our energy needs in the future, and I do not think it will be 12th century technology.
Fred Sullivan 