Energy Geotechnics: Toward a Sustainable Energy Future

Abstract

Economic development over the past century has been powered largely by fossil fuels. Large, centralized coal plants provided the opportunity for increased population density and job growth, resulting in improved manufacturing capacity and prosperity. Our increasing use of oil allowed us to travel farther, transport goods faster, and develop innovative supply chains. However, not every country followed this same development pattern—30% of the world’s rural population still lacks access to electricity per The World Energy Outlook. To put this into perspective, if those in India without electricity constituted the populace of a country, it would be the fourth largest in the world. Without electricity, many people are denied many necessities and luxuries, one of these being access to the wealth of information via the Internet. Providing clean energy that enables economic development and lifts communities to a better living standard while protecting the climate is the seminal challenge for a world of nearly ten billion people. This paper showcases the use of large-scale, energy production from wind and efficiency offered by geothermal exchange by highlighting the use of applied wind energy geotechnics and thermal geotechnics—both of which are elements of the emerging discipline of Energy Geotechnics.