I think the comparison of geothermal with nuclear is a fair one.
I can see two area where it might have a roll.
One is avoiding seasonal storage, putting solar PV in to a battery in summer to draw out the power in late spring. That's costly because you only use the battery once a year. Producing electricity using expensive geothermal might turn out to be cheaper than producing it using something cheaper but storing it for months.
Second use that occurs to me is as a heat source to feed in to a district heating scheme as replacement for natural gas or fuel oil. Whilst electricity from renewables compares okay with electricty from gas on a cost basis as a source of heat it is at a cost disadvantage. Geothermal straight to heat might be better - but I'm not familiar enought with the cost structure of geothermal to know how much of the capital cost is the drilling and pipes and how much is the turbine.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2021-09-07 07:02 am (UTC)I can see two area where it might have a roll.
One is avoiding seasonal storage, putting solar PV in to a battery in summer to draw out the power in late spring. That's costly because you only use the battery once a year. Producing electricity using expensive geothermal might turn out to be cheaper than producing it using something cheaper but storing it for months.
Second use that occurs to me is as a heat source to feed in to a district heating scheme as replacement for natural gas or fuel oil. Whilst electricity from renewables compares okay with electricty from gas on a cost basis as a source of heat it is at a cost disadvantage. Geothermal straight to heat might be better - but I'm not familiar enought with the cost structure of geothermal to know how much of the capital cost is the drilling and pipes and how much is the turbine.