[EvaH (OP)]

Wendy asks:

With all the energy in the centre of the earth, can we drill holes deep down to somehow access this energy to replace the conventional energy available on earth today?

What do you think?

[vhfpmr]

It's already done, but only where it's economically viable (or subsidised).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_energy#Economics

[alancalverd]

Problem is that the really hot stuff is very deep down and the crust is flexible, so you need to keep re-drilling the hole to stop the pipe or whatever from breaking!

[syhprum]

There has been talk of shipping in geothermal energy down from Iceland eversince I was a boy but it gets nowhere , if it is cheaper to burn natural gas that's what gets done regardless of pollution

[alancalverd]

Little point in importing heat from Iceland - the transmission loss would be huge. Electricity, by all means, but supply and demand are closely matched in Iceland so you'd have to build a new power station and a transmission line. It's cheaper to build a few windmills nearer to home, and import nuclear electricity from France  when needed.

[syhprum]

I did not of course contemplate envisage importing heat as such only electricity generated by geothermal heat.
it seemed a good idea one hundred years ago but other ways of generating electricity have rather made it obsoleate.
the imminent development of cheap simple fusion plants makes it even less likely that it will ever come to pass.

[charles1948]

the imminent development of cheap simple fusion plants makes it even less likely that it will ever come to pass.

Could you give further information, please,  about the imminent development of these "fusion plants"?

They would be so exciting, and would solve all our energy problems! 

Alas, I don't think you will reply.

[Petrochemicals]

I have asked a question similar to this. The resounding thing I concluded was just to meet today's energy uses the thermal output of the earth would be severely curtailed, this would mean a cooler suface. With the energy use at UK present standards across an estimated world population of 13 million in future the earth would suffer catastrophic cooling, a thicker crust. We could suffer far more severe and regular earthquakes and global famines.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_energy_consumption

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_internal_heat_budget#:~:text=Global%20internal%20heat%20flow,-Cross%20section%20of&text=Estimates%20of%20the%20total%20heat,on%20more%20than%2038%2C000%20measurements.

Essentially withdrawing 4000 hrs of energy from the surface per year at present quadrupling in future as population increace and  living standards are accounted for. If you look at it from another point of view geothermal power is essentially putting cooling pipes into the Earth's interior,  and moving the energy through the crust bypassing the surface. Essentially you are in reaching the thickness and expanse  of the insulation layer, meaning the surface ends up cooler.

Snow, ice ages famine and earthquakes, but at least we could put the heating on.