My understanding is that the earth’s molten lava is several miles within it’s crust and it takes a lot of energy to drill that deep to it? Clear me up on this. Thanks
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The earth’s crust varies in thickness by quite a lot, it’s generally thinnest under the oceans although it’s thick at the oceanic ridges. On the continents it’s thickest under mountains. But, you don’t have to drill all the way to the mantle to reach suitably high temperatures.
For complex reasons, parts of the earth’s crust have different rates of heat flow. That is, very high temperatures can be reached at shallower depths in some places while in other places the same temps are much deeper. Areas with high heat flow are found in the Great Basin in the western US. There are actually a few geothermal power plants near Reno, Nevada that take advantage of this.
I don’t think it’s economic or technologically possible to generate geothermal energy without some natural assistance.