Subtitles (166)
0:08OK, so if you can't tell already,
0:11(Cheers and applause)
0:16And I also spent my career
in the oil and gas industry.
0:19So do you hate me yet?
0:24So I went into oil and gas
because energy is life.
0:29And I wanted to be able to provide people
with lights, air conditioning, heat,
0:35and, of course, the ability to watch
funny cat videos on their phone.
0:41But energy also evolves.
0:43So humans used to burn wood
for heat and light.
0:47We then transitioned to whale oil
and to coal, and then to oil and gas.
0:53But we're now using renewables,
like solar and wind.
0:58And it's this exciting evolution
1:00to clean, renewable energy
1:04that inspired me to leave Shell
1:07and start my own geothermal company
with my partners.
1:11And so we're now using
that mud-on-your-boots know-how
1:14from the oil and gas industry
1:16to drill for heat
instead of for hydrocarbons.
1:20So most people don't know this,
1:21but there's a lot of heat
deep in the Earth.
1:24And the deeper you drill,
the hotter it gets.
1:28And this heat, this energy,
1:31it's always on, it's clean,
1:35and it actually holds
50,000 times more energy
1:39than all of the oil and gas reserves
1:44So why am I still talking
about oil and gas?
1:49It's because we're going to take
the technologies
1:52that the oil and gas have developed
over the last 100 years,
1:56at a cost of trillions of dollars,
2:00and we're going to start drilling
for heat instead of hydrocarbons.
2:05So let's talk a little bit about drilling,
just to give you guys a basis on it.
2:09Oil used to be found
in puddles on the ground.
2:12So people figured out
that they could use it
2:15to run machineries, cars, airplanes,
2:19and the demand skyrocketed.
2:22The oil line on the ground ran out
because people were using it.
2:25So we started to dig.
2:27So we dug deeper and deeper.
2:30And despite what you
may have heard or think about,
2:34you know, roughnecks and oil field work,
2:37it's actually quite complex and technical.
2:40The industry was able
to advance the technologies even more
2:44to unlock oil that was
previously out of reach,
2:48and at a cost the world could afford.
2:50And so, using amazing innovation,
2:55the industry learned how to basically
turn the bit sideways in the subsurface,
3:01be able to drill horizontally
3:03within the layers that actually
carried the oil and gas.
3:08The industry also learned
how to frack the rock
3:12to release oil that would have
otherwise been stuck in there.
3:19not everybody's a fan of fracking,
3:21but it really did bring in
an era of lower cost energy.
3:27And I'll tell you in a minute why fracking
is important for geothermal energy.
3:33So the oil and gas industry,
3:36with all of this turning
and steering underground,
3:40was able to drill deeper, drill hotter
3:45and actually drill
with some pinpoint precision.
3:50imagine hitting a target
the size of a pizza
3:54at a depth of five miles
under the ground into the Earth,
3:58and being able to do this
over and over again.
4:02The technology is pretty amazing.
4:05And so we are now going
to use that technology
4:11but we're not going to have to learn
over those 100 years,
4:15so we can apply it straight away.
4:18So you guys may ask,
why do we even need geothermal?
4:22Because let's admit, wind and solar
have done a great job greening the grid.
4:26Well geothermal can do
what wind and solar can’t,
4:30and that is provide power
24 hours a day, seven days a week,
4:35regardless of what the weather is.
4:38You can also use geothermal
as a giant battery
4:42to store extra energy from wind and solar,
4:46and to make those intermittent
power resources baseload,
4:50because we can then use
that extra energy during the day
4:53when the sun is not shining
and the wind's not blowing.
4:56And so where is the real prize
for geothermal?
5:01So I think a lot of us know about Iceland
5:05or the geysers in California,
5:07where they've done a great job
of exploiting the shallow pools
5:12of hot water that's
just below the surface.
5:16The challenge with those areas
5:18is that it's kind of
a unique, unicorn geology.
5:22So the real prize in geothermal
is in rock that’s deep, hot,
5:28so you're going to have to drill deeper.
5:30So we call this
next-generation geothermal.
5:34And that's where we're going.
5:36And we're going there by drilling
deeper, hotter and horizontal.
5:40And I would say that there are
several companies
5:43that are racing toward this future.
5:46I'm proud to say that we are
not just talking about it.
5:50We’re actually in the field,
drilling wells, building systems
5:54and proving that geothermal
technology can work
5:58in unassuming places like Texas.
6:00Who had ever heard of geothermal in Texas?
6:04OK, I said I’d come back
to the f-word, fracking,
6:07and why is it important to geothermal.
6:11So in this deep, hot rock,
6:14there's not a lot of cracks
for water to flow through.
6:18And the way we get geothermal to work
6:22is to flow water through fracks
6:26and then we use that water
to carry the heat to the surface.
6:30And when you get that heat to the surface,
6:32you can use it to drive turbines,
6:35to power electricity,
6:37or you can use the heat directly.
6:39The reason why we use fracturing
6:42is we can create those cracks in the rock,
6:46or those pathways through which
the water can flow through.
6:49So here is a picture of a frack operation.
6:52This was actually at our well.
6:55So what we do during fracking operations
is we are creating cracks in the rock
7:00or we're widening cracks
that are already there,
7:02and we're using it with a liquid
that is mainly water.
7:06We do add crushed rock
called barite in the water
7:11to make it more dense.
7:13The thing I want to note
is that we're pumping at lower pressures
7:16and lower rates
than the oil and gas industry,
7:19and we're actually wanting to avoid
natural occurring faults.
7:23And this allows us
to make our risk of earthquakes low.
7:29We're not talking about technology
that's decades in the future.
7:33This is footage from
our energy storage facility,
7:37which is actually built at a coal plant.
7:41This coal plant is delivering
people electricity 24 hours a day,
7:47and they are making
the bold move to solar.
7:51And it was -- without
our energy storage facility,
7:54they're not able to make that move
7:56because solar alone cannot
replace that power 24 hours a day.
8:01And then soon we're going
to be powering a metadata center
8:05with our next-generation
geothermal technologies.
8:08Imagine again, Facebook,
Instagram, WhatsApp,
8:13and, of course, funny cat videos
8:15being powered by the Earth's heat.
8:18So how big can this get and how fast?
8:21If we're able to take
next-generation geothermal,
8:24get the cost comparable
to other power sources,
8:28we're going to be able
to use the geologist,
8:31the drillers, the service companies,
8:33the engineers from
the oil and gas industry
8:36who are currently drilling
70,000 wells a year for oil and gas,
8:41and instead have them drill for heat.
8:45So the result -- by 2050,
8:48we can deliver almost 80 percent
of the electricity demand
8:55and over 100 percent
of the heat for all homes,
9:00all businesses on the planet.
9:11climate change solved,
9:12that better future that our kids deserve.
9:16I'm hoping this leaves you guys energized.
9:19There's people like me
that are already working toward this end.
9:24And the thing I want to leave you with
9:26is that that energy is
everywhere beneath our feet.
9:29We just need to tap into it.
