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The following article was published in our article directory on August 28, 2010.
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Geothermal Energy

Article Category: Computers and Technology

Author Name: Dave May

Basic Facts

Geothermal energy is basically heat locked inside our planet. It is generated internally by radioactive decay, pressure and tectonic movement. Absorption of solar energy through the surface of the earth also contributes to this stored heat. A key to harnessing geothermal energy is the presence of underground water reservoir. When this water becomes steam due to geothermal energy, it tends to rise to the surface at high pressure. It is this steam that serves as the medium of geothermal energy.

The Technology

It is important to understand two basic systems for exploiting geothermal energy. One of this is the geothermal heat pump and the other is the geothermal power plant.

- A geothermal heat pump is basically a system that gets heat to or from the soil. In the winter, it withdraws heat from the earth to supply it to several applications. In this mode, the heat pump uses the earth as a heat source. In the summer, the geothermal heat pump takes heat from the air and delivers it to the ground, which becomes a heat sink. Because this is against the regular flow tendency of heat, the heat pump must extract energy from an external source, usually a combination of solar energy and geothermal power. Geothermal heat pumps are more efficient for heating than for cooling.

- Generation of power makes use of heat engines. Essentially, a heat engine takes in heat, in this case from hot rocks or underground steam, and converts it to work, in this instance, to drive a generator. In order to extract heat from an underground rock layer, water must be pumped to it. The water turns to steam which runs the heat engine. It is obvious that one must drill holes into the ground to access the heated rock layer. It is also clear that in time the the rock will be too cool to be useful for power generation.

The Pros

- Unlike solar and wind energy, geothermal energy supply is less intermittent. For this reason it is more reliable than these other alternatives.
- Geothermal energy is free and virtually inexhaustible. Like solar energy, only a minuscule fraction of available geothermal energy is extracted. Hence, sustainability is assured.

The Cons

- Among the green energy sources, geothermal energy is the only one associated with release of greenhouse gases from the earth. It should be added that for the same amount of energy extracted, the amount of greenhouse gas released by a geothermal plant is much less than the amount from fossil fuel. Hence geothermal energy is considered green.
- A possible constraint on geothermal energy is that its source is limited to tectonically active locations. Hence, not every country or every part of a country may be blessed with this resource.
- Another drawback is the high cost of drilling and exploration. This cost makes it difficult to increase our supply of geothermal energy.

Applications

In ancient civilizations, geothermal energy was used to heat baths and rooms. At present, however, power generation is its more important use.

Application of geothermal energy depends on the temperature of the geothermal source. "Low temperature" geothermal sources have a temperature of 300 °F (149 °C) or less. Such sources are well-suited to direct-use applications. These include providing heat to communities or districts for space heating and heating pools, to agricultural facilities such as greenhouses, industries such as fisheries, and recovery of minerals.

High-temperature geothermal sources are used in power generation. However, low temperature sources may also be exploited for this purpose through the use of so-called binary-cycle technology.

Keywords: solar power systems, solar lighting, wind energy, residential wind turbine, geothermal energy, photovoltaic panels, flexible solar panels, solar water pump, solar green energy, solar panels for the home, green energy grants

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