Geothermal Technology: The Advantages of Geothermal Energy Production
December 23rd, 2009 Posted in Green Living & News
The new millennium has seen governments and companies searching for new reliable, clean energy resources as never before. Not only do these prospects help stave off impending danger from global climate change, but lower pollution implies lower costs to companies via write-offs and other corporate concessions from governing powers. You can also use geothermal heating and cooling to condition your house.
One alternative to fossil fuels is Geothermal Energy, literally energy taken from the heat generated by the earth itself, which is accompanied by advantages that could make it incredibly useful in the march towards sustainability.
Read on to learn about:
Geothermal Energy Extraction
Humans have been using geothermal energy for thousands of years. In North America, evidence suggests that as far back as 10,000 years ago Paleo-Indians used hot springs as a source of cleansing, healing, cooking, and resting. These springs were considered neutral territories where even members of warring nations could congregate in peace. Since then, people from all over the world have also tapped into this resource by digging deep wells and then pumping the hot water/steam to the surface.
With the advent of modern technology, the prospects for mass geothermal energy production have increased greatly in scope, with many countries around the world utilizing this virtually limitless source of power.
Geothermal power is considered renewable because the interior of the Earth is expected to remain incredibly hot for billions of years to come, ensuring an inexhaustible amount of potential energy.
There are 3 general uses for geothermal extraction:
- Geothermal Electricity Production. Wells are driven into geothermal reservoirs, usually heated pockets of water or steam, which collect well below the groundwater table. Wells then bring this liquid (or vapor) to the surface, and it is processed at a power plant, generally using the steam to rotate a turbine, changing into electricity (geothermal power).
- Direct Use. Direct use applications involve taking advantage of the geothermal energy without ever changing it into electricity. Uses can include space heating and cooling, cooking, and some industrial applications. People have been taking advantage of this resource for thousands of years, with evidence tracing use back to Ancient Roman times at the latest.
- Geothermal Heat Pumps (GHPs). GHPs are pumps that take advantage of the relatively constant temperature of the Earth, using it as a “source and sink” for both heating and cooling. When heating a space, energy is taken from the Earth and dissipated into the space. When cooling, the process works the other way around, by taking heat from the space and dissipating it into the Earth. These can be used anywhere on Earth and are considered by the EPA to be among the most efficient and clean temperature control systems available.
Advantages of Geothermal Energy
One of the greatest advantages is the fact that the power source will not run out. And since the process within the earth never stops, the price of electricity derived from the process should not increase over time.
There are other advantages since Geothermal Energy:
- Allows countries that take advantage of it as an alternative to decrease their dependence of foreign fossil fuels.
- Needs no fuel to create geothermal electricity.
- Creates almost zero pollutants, since the energy people are tapping into is directly created by the Earth itself. This implies corporate advantages stemming from tax-cuts, and these companies may have no environmental quotas to comply with.
- Lowers costs. Purchasing land for building a Geothermal plant is usually much less than land purchases for more typical plants. This is generally because the amount of space required to run a geothermal plant is negligible compared to space requirements for gas, coal, oil plants, etc, because most of the actual process takes place under the ground.
Industry Expansion in the UK
On October 22, 2009, officials in the UK announced the launch of the new Deep Geothermal Challenge Fund, which aims at assisting companies in conducting exploratory research into finding viable locations for the application of Geothermal Energy Extraction technologies.
“We want to make sure that this energy resource can play a part in the future low-carbon energy mix. Deep geothermal power from the South West of England alone could meet 2 percent of the UK’s annual electricity demand, potentially creating thousands of jobs in the building and running of new power plants,” said Lord Hunt, the Energy and Climate Change Commissioner.
Officials say that tapping into this mostly unextracted and virtually limitless power source would help make the country less-dependent on foreign imports of fossil fuels and would also help strengthen and diversify the country’s energy mix.
The Southampton District Energy Scheme is presently the only operating Geothermal Power facility in the UK, pumping water from 1800 meters below ground as part of the areas heating network. The station has been running successfully for over 20 years and saves about 11,000 tonnes of CO2 annually.
Projects throughout England, Scotland, and Wales were able to bid for the project November 20, 2009 with successful bids announced later in the month.
