What is Geothermal Energy all about?Hi and welcome to our "What is Geothermal energy?" page. It's energy coming from the radioactive decay that occurs deep within the Earth’s crust. This energy can be used for heating homes ( using geothermal heatpumps), and when conditions are optimal ( enough heat) for producing electricity.
The history of the geothermal power plant.
It all started In 1911. It was than that the world's first geothermal power plant was built in the Valle del Diavolo ("Devil's Valley") Italy, named for the boiling water that rises there. It was the world's only industrial producer of geothermal electricity until 1958, when New Zealand built a plant of its own in Wairakei. After that time, on many other places in the world, geothermal plants have been build. The biggest problem that was occuring,was that after a few years the sustainable amount of steam was dropping . The electricity production ended and the electricity plant was left.. What is geothermal energy ? There are three geothermal power plant technologies being used to convert hydrothermal fluids to electricity. The conversion technologies are dry steam, flash, and binary cycle.
It were the first type of geothermal power plants built. They use the steam from the geothermal reservoir as it comes from wells, and route it directly through turbine generator units to produce electricity. These are the plants were previous described . Geothermal EnergyWhat is Geothermal energy coming from Hot Dry Rock?
This type of geothermal power production tuses the very high temperatures (approx 200 Celsius) that can be found in rocks a few kilometers below ground. Water has injected deep below the Earth crust, and this water travels trough cracks in the Earth layers. This water extracts the heat , and comes to the surface again by a second bore hole in steam form. The steam generated by the high temperature will be lead to a electricity generating turbine to produce electricity. After that the water is cooled down again , it will be again injected back into the Earth , and the process can continue. Hot Dry Rock power wells are expected to have a useful life of 20 to 30 years before the outflow temperature drops about 10 degrees Celsius and the well becomes uneconomic. Flash Steam Power PlantsWhat is geothermal energy from coming Flash steam plants? They are the most common type of geothermal power generation plants in operation today. They use water at temperatures greater than 360°F (182°C) that is pumped under high pressure to the generation equipment at the surface.
Hydrothermal fluids above 360°F (182°C) can be used in flash plants to make electricity. Fluid is sprayed into a tank held at a much lower pressure than the fluid, causing some of the fluid to rapidly vaporize, or "flash." The vapor then drives a turbine, which drives a generator. If any liquid remains in the tank, it can be flashed again in a second tank to extract even more geothermal energy. For who is interested... A better description of
Flash Steam power plants
What is geothermal energy coming from Binary cycle?Binary cycle geothermal energy generation plants differ from dry steam and flash steam systems. With these system ,the water or steam from the geothermal reservoir never comes in contact with the turbine generator units. The biggest advantage isThat steam eliminates the need to burn fossil fuels to run the turbine. Also it's eliminates the need to transport and store fuels. So this is a very good way to fight climate change and global warming.The biggest disadvantage: Sometimes these hot steam sources crun dry after a some time.. Heating and cooling buildings...Not only in regions with natural hot springs and geysers it is possible to benefit from geothermal energy, but also in regions without large geothermal resources. In fact, in most of the counties geothermal heat pumps or enhanced geothermal systems can be used.
Mostly for rather large buildings like medical centers,schools... and others, with a high heating costs, extract useful energy from even relatively cool sources of heat below the surface (typically at 10-12°C, 50-54°F) while EGS uses high pressure water to extract energy from broken rock. These technologies make geothermal heating an attractive proposition in many geographical locations.
In recent years, the term geothermal energy has frequently been used to refer to the heating and cooling that can be achieved through the use of a
This technique is generally for residential use. For heating, it involves pumping cool water (often containing an anti-freeze) through pipes in the ground. As the water circulates underground it absorbs heat from the ground and, on its return, the now warmer water passes through a heat exchanger, who attracks the heat from the water.
Then this cold water is sent back to the ground again.When the water is heating up again the process can be repeat. There's only one thing,though. You need electricity to extract the heat or do the pumping. Anyway, in lower quantity than you should needed if you would heat your house on electricity.
Geothermal heat pumps take advantage of the natural constant temperature of the earth. During winter when the ground temperature is warmer than the air above it, geothermal heat pumps use the earth’s soil (or groundwater) to recover the earth’s heat.
So, i you can warm the house during the winter and cool it during summer month.
You can compare a geothermal heat pump wit an refrigerator : The refrigerator removes the heat from inside and delivered it to the outside. A heat pump removes heat from the soil or from the groundwater the same way an refrigerator does do In every case, with geothermal energy,we have green energy. Green energy also means that no co2 emissions are involved. So, a very good energy resource to the environment and to fight climate change.
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