Google Maps can help you navigate from one place to another. But can they also help provide America with a bountiful new supply of energy? Apparently so, as Google has teamed up with Southern Methodist University to produce a new series of maps designed to reveal geothermal energy potential in the U.S. Geothermal energy taps reservoirs of hot water found naturally in the earth, and according to Energy and Environment Daily, the project can provide useful information on locating new sources. There are still major challenges for tapping those geothermal sites, but with the project claiming the U.S. can produce more than 3 million megawatts of geothermal energy, or more than 10 times the amount we currently get from coal, this is an idea researchers are pretty warm about.
July 17, 2013 by David Rothbard,
David Rothbard is co-founder and President of CFACT.