Project Introduction
The energy source that I have chosen to investigate is geothermal energy. On this page I will answer four questions and provide pictures and a conclusion.
Investigation
1. Geothermal energy is classified as renewable, it would be inexhaustible if not for the fact that it involves water and that water must be sustained.
2. The Earth naturally generates heat and powerplants or geothermal systems harness that heat through the steam it produces. The steam is used to turn turbines that power generators to create electricity.
3. For a geothermal power plant, it ideally needs to be built over a hot location on Earth such as Iceland. Most houses in this area can have the option of a geothermal heat pump, which is a smaller scale use of geothermal heat that can be generated for a single household. Some people believe that volcanoes could solve most of our problems, which they do provide a lot of geothermal heat.
4. The newest technology in geothermal energy is a new drilling system that can drill directionally at temperatures of 300 degrees Celsius. This development could even make other energy sources more available and provide power for more than 100 million homes.
2. The Earth naturally generates heat and powerplants or geothermal systems harness that heat through the steam it produces. The steam is used to turn turbines that power generators to create electricity.
3. For a geothermal power plant, it ideally needs to be built over a hot location on Earth such as Iceland. Most houses in this area can have the option of a geothermal heat pump, which is a smaller scale use of geothermal heat that can be generated for a single household. Some people believe that volcanoes could solve most of our problems, which they do provide a lot of geothermal heat.
4. The newest technology in geothermal energy is a new drilling system that can drill directionally at temperatures of 300 degrees Celsius. This development could even make other energy sources more available and provide power for more than 100 million homes.
Pictures
https://www.nationaldriller.com
Here is the drilling system used for geothermal heat pumps.
https://en.wikipedia.org
Volcanoes are located on very hot places of the Earth and could be used as geothermal energy.
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https://en.wikipedia.org
This is one of the biggest geothermal plants in the world, located in Iceland.
www.resolutionpossible.co.uk
Here is a diagram of how a geothermal power plant works.
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Conclusion
I think that geothermal energy is a very wise source of renewable energy. It is way more logical to use the heat of the Earth which will eventually be returned to the Earth itself rather than burning fossil fuels that emit tons of greenhouse gases. Something definitely needs to be done to reduce the CO2 emissions and to slow down the rate that we are heating this planet. Geothermal energy could be a viable solution however we would need to start soon because of the current and soon-to-be shortage of fossil fuels which would be needed in the process of drilling the holes for the pumps.
I was very surprised to learn that the efficiency of a geothermal heat pump itself is about 400% compared to a fossil fuel furnace at an average of 84%. This is a crazy number, because usually you never get efficiencies over 100% unless you have done something wrong. The efficiency just supports the fact that geothermal energy is the way to go.
I was very surprised to learn that the efficiency of a geothermal heat pump itself is about 400% compared to a fossil fuel furnace at an average of 84%. This is a crazy number, because usually you never get efficiencies over 100% unless you have done something wrong. The efficiency just supports the fact that geothermal energy is the way to go.