Geothermal Heating

If you could sum up the likely future of geothermal energy in a single word, it might be "growth." Since the price of oil has risen to almost historical highs and doesn't seem to be heading down any time soon, the interest in what is finally now becoming a mature geothermal industry has risen exponentially.

Since the US Federal Government began federally funded research into what was then the mostly speculative science of geothermal energy production in 1974, great strides have been made, not only in their effort to supply the groundwork for home installations of passive and active geothermal systems, but also in the continuing evolution of geothermal power generation.

It is very likely that the enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) will become a critical technology that allows for a large expansion of the current geothermal power capacity of the United States (already the highest in the world by wattage alone). This technique is responsible for pumping water back into sites that have exhausted their water supply in an effort to rejuvenate old and invigorate new power plant sites. It is thought that with a fully mature EGS, the capacity of the US could actually double or triple in the time it takes to build, fill and drill the new plants.

Since most of the country does not live in a geothermically active area, the largest expansion market is actually for the heat pumps. These supplement your home heating and cooling with direct and passive application of water that has been brought to the Earth's ambient temperature by long runs of pipe underground or shorter lengths in a nearby body of water. They don't even require a large yard since they can be installed as coils that extend deep into the Earth. This could represent significant energy savings in northeastern and central North America where winters tend to be quite severe and the energy bills very high.

The other large growth sector of the geothermic market is the use of what is called cool water. This cool water can be quite hot to humans, ranging from room temperature to over 300F (150C), though not nearly as hot as the many hundreds of degrees that are required to get turbines spinning for high wattage power production. These somewhat cooler waters can be used for many direct applications, including home and farm heat.

It is certain that with continued interest and funding that the future market and applications of geothermal energy will continue to become more diverse as new ways of harnessing the power of the Earth are discovered.

Geothermal Heating |