Because the electricity wouldn’t be free, you’d have to build a ton of expensive infrastructure in the middle of nowhere (people tend not to live near active volcanoes), in an area that is very geologically active (cos of the volcano) with a real risk that everything you’ve built gets wiped out at some point in the next few decades (volcano).
There are a ton of ways to generate clean electricity, the trick is doing it in a way that is even remotely cost effective $/MWh
Your comment is of course completely accurate. The last paragraph is depressing though, “we have all the solutions, but we won’t do them because money”.
Bad news: large parts of the world have built their economies around coal and gas extraction, and the cost to society of those industries collapsing is harder to quantify
People absolutely live near active volcanoes. They have some of the just fertile soil on the planet. Naples, Sicily, Hawaii, Iceland, Japan, Indonesia etc. In fact Iceland is almost entirely powered by geothermal energy.
Because the electricity wouldn’t be free, you’d have to build a ton of expensive infrastructure in the middle of nowhere (people tend not to live near active volcanoes), in an area that is very geologically active (cos of the volcano) with a real risk that everything you’ve built gets wiped out at some point in the next few decades (volcano).
There are a ton of ways to generate clean electricity, the trick is doing it in a way that is even remotely cost effective $/MWh
“(people tend not to live near active volcanoes)”
[Hawaii enters the chat]
Your comment is of course completely accurate. The last paragraph is depressing though, “we have all the solutions, but we won’t do them because money”.
Good news: solar and wind are actually substantially cheaper than coal or gas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_of_electricity_by_source
Bad news: large parts of the world have built their economies around coal and gas extraction, and the cost to society of those industries collapsing is harder to quantify
People absolutely live near active volcanoes. They have some of the just fertile soil on the planet. Naples, Sicily, Hawaii, Iceland, Japan, Indonesia etc. In fact Iceland is almost entirely powered by geothermal energy.