Geothermal Heating

Geothermal Power Plants are springing up throughout the entire world. In areas that have especially high concentrations of magma that is relatively close to the surface, water can become superheated under pressure, ready to be drilled out and released at very high temperatures and rates. These locations are ideally suited for the generation of electricity from a turbine designed to work on steam reassessed from the Earth itself.

The energy released has an energy in/out ratio of at least 1:4 and more like 1:8 when the equipment has depreciated and paid for itself. Of course, the cost of upkeep on a power plant with many moving parts is greater than those systems that simply transfer heat from one location and media to another, but the energy can then be uploaded to the grid without much further loss of power.

When building such a plant, the biggest capital expense other than the material cost of equipment is the drilling. This can be rather expensive in the typically remote locations hot springs are found, especially when there are no roads to get there, which is common the American West. That said, capital investments are recouped faster for geothermal power than most other types of "renewable" resources generated on an industrial scale.

Of course, geothermal energy may be harnessed, literally right in your own backyard. Nearly one quarter of North America is thought to be drillable for waters that are over 68F (20C), capable of direct heating. Rather short lengths of pipe can be used to convey hot water, directly or from a centrally distributed "district" system.

Those who live in an area with a geothermal electrical power plant may not even be aware that their power is generated that way. Most customers just pay the bill every month. In parts of the Europe such as Iceland, Turkey and Italy, significant percentages of their energy needs are supplied by geothermal power delivered as electricity.

Furthermore, there are several places in Europe where there is a central system that directly delivers pipes of hot water to households. In Western North America the more typical geothermal supplemental system is private, using heated ground water or the heat of the Earth itself to circulate cool water under homes.

For suburban homeowners, using geothermically generated electricity from the grid is about as close as they'll ever come to using geothermal power unless they install a complicated coil system (with or without a longer drill tap) under their yards. Though still a very small segment of the electrical generation market, the use of geothermal as home heating is proven and could save a large percentage of the current demand for fuels with a very high weight to energy output ratio, such as are required for vehicles. Since your home or business isn't going anywhere, it's ideally suited to geothermal power.

Geothermal Heating |