Why don’t we use more geothermal energy?

Geothermal energy is renewable, reliable and powerful. So, why is
most of it untapped?


That’s what our listener, Anna in the UK, wants to know. Full
disclosure, she’s a geologist and is thoroughly perplexed by the
lack of uptake. Geothermal is renewable, reliable and abundant
and yet, less than 1% of the world’s energy is generated from it.


Host Graihagh Jackson hears about a team in Iceland who hope to
"super-charge" geothermal power by drilling directly into
volcanic magma. And she travels to Germany to visit Vulcan
Energy, a company which is combining geothermal with extracting
one of the world's most sought-after metals: Lithium. Plus, our
reporter in Indonesia tells Graihagh about local opposition to
some geothermal power plants.


Got a question you’d like answered? Email:
TheClimateQuestion@bbc.com or WhatsApp: +44 8000 321 721


Host: Graihagh Jackson Reporter in Indonesia: Johanes Hutabarat
Producer: Osman Iqbal Sound Mix: James Beard Editor: Simon Watts