My last article about the near future was about geothermal energy and how it will provide inexhaustable, pollution free electricity that will be almost too cheap to meter.
When (not if) that happens a lot of other things will happen. Think of 'free' electricity as the first pebble that started a landslide.
Today I want to talk about pipelines. Our civilization depends on them. Everything from fuel transportation to water and sewage. Without pipelines we'd be in deep shit. Literally.
As described in the last article microwave vaporization of rock when employed vertically will be used to dig DEEP boreholes for geothermal. What about using that same technology horizontally?
Using that exact same technology, with some modifications, pipelines of various sizes could be drilled anywhere that they were needed.
Lack of water is a BIG problem in the United States. West of Interstate 35 the land becomes more arid. The 'desert southwest', for example, is running OUT of water, and yet, just a sixty miles away from a stretch of the Arizona Mexico border is the gulf of California with an infinite supply of water.
Using Microwave beam technology it wouldn't be all that hard to run a tunnel to access that water. With or without the permission of the Mexican Government, after all they dig tunnels across the border to smuggle narcotics into the United States all the time. Turnabout is fair play.
With free energy why stop with one tunnel. Imagine hundreds of them from Arizona to the middle of the gulf of california. The underwater mouth of the tunnel need NOT be close to land, in fact it would probably be best to be in the deepest part.
Now there's a large pipe full of seawater from the ocean to a desalination plant. Not just one but dozens of them. There would be more than enough water to turn the desert into a garden.
The same could apply anywhere.
Note. If for some odd reason drilling a pipeline across an international border was deemed to be inadvisable then go west young man. From Yuma to San Diego (172 miles) isn't that much further.
Another note. Several locations in the desert southwest are below sea level. A horizontal pipeline from there to the Pacific ocean, less than 200 miles away, wouldn't even need a pump!
Desalination aside, it's been said that the United States doesn't have a water shortage problem so much as some places having too much water while other places don't have enough. Since drilling pipelines will be easy with 'free' electricity pipelines could be drilled from, oh I dunno, perhaps the Great Lakes to anywhere that need fresh water? Just a thought.
With 'free' energy the United States could construct storm sewers on a gigantic scale. The mississippi river floods on a regular basis. It's just begging for a storm sewer pipeline to transport the water to somewhere else.
One final note: Right of ways. The local, state and federal government already have them. Drill the pipelines beneath the roads. The government could lease the right of ways and earn money with out taxing anyone. Perhaps fund Universal Basic Income to offset job killing automation? Just a thought.
That would be just one example.
A final note. 'Water Tunnels' are being constructed as we speak. Imagine how much easier and cheaper the new technology will make it?