# What Do We Do When We Run Out Of Resources?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-we-do-when-we-run-out-of-resources/116877>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [July 1, 2002, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-we-do-when-we-run-out-of-resources/116877 "2002-07-01T18:41:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\
**Post date:** [July 4, 2002, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-we-do-when-we-run-out-of-resources/116877/41 "2002-07-04T12:55:16Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Boo Boo Foo \*  
> \*\*Interestingly, two areas of constant energy are rarely, if ever discussed.
> 
> (1) The Earth’s mantle - by and large - is only 50klm thick. Underneath that is an extraordinary supply of molten rock - which translated equals lots and lots of heat - which in theory could be tapped by steam piping. Steam is good - it follows any pipe in any direction. It can then pump electricity turbines.\*\*

Two points:

1. “Only 50km” is still pretty deep.
2. Geothermal energy suffers from problems of being low-quality heat, and from having high operating and maintenance costs due to the entrained chemcials and minerals in it. You absolutely cannot send that water directly through a turbine and expect it to last for very long. You have to use a closed-loop heat exchanger process, which has further efficiency losses. Summary - it works, but it’s expensive - very expensive, except in places like Iceland.

And then there is keeping the pipes and valves and loops clean and free from scaling, which can shut down a plant very quickly. Even Seasonal Thermal Energy Storage in acquifers suffers from this problem (I designed an entire solar/acquifer STES system from scratch for a 50,000 square-foot building, and the cost of maintenance was horrifying.)

> [@](#):
>
> \*\*(2) Of all the energy the Sun pumps out every 24 hours, only a miniscule fraction of it hits Earth. If we could catch just a tiny bit which passes us close by and feed it back down to Earth we could, in theory, have amazing energy supplies. \*\*

In theory, yes. In practice, unfortunately, no. There are people on this Board who in the past have explained some of the serious problems with this much better than I can. It’s good reading - search for “solar” and “satellite” in GQ and GD, and you will find many threads on it that can be good reading.

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**Author:** ![CptHowdy65](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/73ab20/32.png) [@CptHowdy65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CptHowdy65)\
**Post date:** [July 4, 2002, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-we-do-when-we-run-out-of-resources/116877/42 "2002-07-04T13:04:30Z")

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Easter Island - 'nuff said

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