Energy and Society
Renewable geothermal

Renewable Geothermal ... starting a discussion about what this might mean ... good and bad

COMMENTARY
This is a comment I have made related to Google's interest in renewable energy:

Geothermal will continue to be 'old news' until accounting for profit is corrected in the financial and investment community. Accounting for the cost of using fossil fuel is WRONG and profit returns from old style energy is incorrectly reported as very high, when in fact it is a profit disaster when costing is done correctly. The TrueValueMetrics initiative I am working on changes this ... and when the change is made, then initiatives in the alternative renewable energy space start becoming interesting mainstream investments.

Old style fossil energy and its associated carbon problems are not going to be addressed in a meaningful way until the method of measuring social, economic and financial performance is corrected. In reality, traditional fossil fuel consumption is based on the concept of unlimited supply of the fossil fuel, and that is patently wrong. When the accounting is done recognising that there has been a consumption of 'inventory' then the numerical analysis changes dramatically. Now the accounting question becomes, what is the pricing that should be used for the inventory being consumed. One method would be to do the pricing at 'replacement' cost which, of course, now is the cost of one of the available alternative or renewable energy sources. Such reform in the accounting or system of metrics would change the landscape of where investment gets made.
Peter Burgess