Most of us have seen the power of a volcano and the yellow heat of erupting magma.

Scientific research showing us how to tap into this heat to produce useful energy has already been accomplished. The USA Sandia National Laboratories did it in the 1980s.

So far there has been no realization of this research in the real world.

Why Should We Tap the Energy in the Earth’s Magma?

To most people magma is the red or yellow hot stuff that rolls out of volcanoes, a slow moving wall of destruction seen rolling over towns and forests. So how does this magma relate to electric energy and storable fuels such as hydrogen, which have so many uses? It is an interesting question but at the moment only a question because the pathway from usable heat to electric generators has not yet been reliably demonstrated. But this path does have a beginning and some pieces are in place. Answering the question is worthwhile because of worldwide implications.

Four of the best reasons for developing the technology that will allow us to tap the energy in the Earth’s magma

  1. The magma regions that are most easily exploitable as an energy source are broadly distributed throughout the world and are different from the distribution of traditional energy resources worldwide—oil, coal and natural gas.

  2. We do not yet know the economics of extracting energy from magma – it might be cheaper than nuclear or solar photovoltaic. All of the other available forms of basic energy resources have been well researched. An inclusive list would read: hydrocarbons, direct solar, nuclear fission, nuclear fusion, waterpower (solar), and naturally occurring geothermal. Magma is the last remaining basic energy source about which we know little except that it is virtually unlimited.

  3. The process by which energy is extracted from magma and ultimately used is environmentally friendly. Energy resources such a hydrogen and steam are generated from the heat and the chemistry of the magma, not from burning nuclear or fossil fuels. The problem of venting magma gasses or creating a volcano seems to be minor and is covered elsewhere in this site.

  4. Energy from magma appears easier to achieve than energy from nuclear fusion and environmentally easier to deal with than the radiation from fission or fusion and the problems of radioactive waste disposal. Note, fusion has been heavily funded for the past 25 years.

During a 1979 US House of Representative Science Committee Hearing, the Sandia National Laboratory stated that there were no longer any science questions that prevented the development of technology for the extraction of energy from circulating magma.[2] It was, however, considered a high-risk engineering project.

The use of the term circulating magma is important because it means it is connected to the Earth core magma and therefore will hold its temperature indefinitely. So in 1979 the challenge moved from a question of science to one of engineering.

General Argument For Energy Supply Expansion via Magma

The chart below on alternative energy costs over time is interesting because it shows that currently geothermal energy is the least expensive of all the environmentally-friendly energy resources. Should geothermal energy derived directly from a magma source not have excessive cost complications, it might also be a low-cost source of environmentally friendly energy similar to current geothermal power plants.

Please note: charts throughout this website may be right-clicked (contextual clicked) to reveal more detail.

Figure 1

(Source: National Renewable Energy Lab; Energy Information Administration 1980 through 2000)

Figure 1. “Alternative Energy Cost Reduction Over Time” 1980 through 2000, US Energy Information Administration.

What is not shown in Figure 1. is the potential size of the geothermal magma resource. According to the US Geological Survey there are 500,000 quadrillion BTU’s of energy in the magma within 10 Kilometers of the surface in the United States. If these magma bodies are in circulation with deeper core bodies of magma, this is a low estimate. As a reference, all energy uses add up to about 110 quadrillion BTU’s per year in the United States.

The point to be observed here is that if one is to seek environmentally friendly, nuclear-free resources of energy, where do we look? The existing geothermal resources are mostly exploited, biomass as an energy resource for the nation has major limits as do wind and Solar. They cannot replace our dependence on oil, gas and coal. The next place to look is geothermal energy from Magma, and this means a technology development program, not a scientific feasibility study, as that has already been accomplished.