Geothermal Politics. Harvesting Deep Heat, interacting with the Bedrock
Résumé
This chapter explores the history of high-temperature geothermal energy (HTG), a pioneering geo-engineering endeavor that emerged in Los Alamos in the USA in response to the 1970s oil crisis and later developed across various testing sites in Europe and Japan during the 1990s. It examines the archaeology of this geological concept – from its origins to the controversial Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS) technology – through a political geology lens, particularly referencing N. Clark’s works. The chapter analyzes how successive geothermal ‘loops’ interacted with different ‘strata,’ highlighting the geological milieu’s unexpected responses. Test by test, it shows how scientific communities and geological concepts were restructured and revised to address the singularities and unexpected material intensities of the underground.
