Why aren't more volcanoes used for geotheral energy?

Jeremy

In some areas, geothermal energy is used extensively, such as Iceland, Italy and Indonesia. In order to have a geothermal resource, adequate ground water must be present. It is the groundwater that is used to transfer the heat from the ground to the electric turbines. In Hawaii, about 10 per cent of the energy used on the island named Hawaii is produced by geothermal wells. But there is a lot of controversy about expanding geothermal energy in Hawaii. Among the two concerns (1) the geothermal areas are in regions of recent volcanism, and so the wells may be covered in a short time by another eruption, and (2) the active volcanoes of Hawaii are considered sacred . . . and so to drill a well and extract geothermal energy is sacrilegious.

Sincerely,
John Dvorak

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