Table of Contents
How does the geothermal energy work?
At a geothermal power plant, wells are drilled 1 or 2 miles deep into the Earth to pump steam or hot water to the surface. The steam spins a turbine, which is connected to a generator that produces electricity. The steam cools off in a cooling tower and condenses back to water.
How does geothermal energy produce energy?
Geothermal power plants use steam to produce electricity. The steam comes from reservoirs of hot water found a few miles or more below the earth’s surface. The steam rotates a turbine that activates a generator, which produces electricity.
What technology is used for geothermal energy?
There are three geothermal power plant technologies being used to convert hydrothermal fluids to electricity—dry steam, flash steam and binary cycle. The type of conversion used (selected in development) depends on the state of the fluid (steam or water) and its temperature.
How does geothermal energy help the environment?
The visible plumes seen rising from some geothermal power plants are actually water vapor emissions (steam), not smoke. Because geothermal power plants do not burn fuel like fossil fuel plants, they release virtually no air emissions.
Is geothermal energy fracking?
Geothermal is a minnow among power sources. The industry may dislike the comparison, but EGS is geothermal fracking. Millions of gallons of water and chemicals are injected into mostly vertical wells at relatively high pressure, and the combination of cold-meets-hot, pressure and chemistry shears the deep, hot rock.
Why is geothermal energy beneficial?
Geothermal provides a reliable source of energy as compared to other renewable resources such as wind and solar power. This is because the resource is always available to be tapped into, unlike with wind or solar energy.
What is the good and bad about geothermal energy?
On the pros side, geothermal energy is a reliable source of power that has a small land footprint compared to other renewable sources, and it can be harnessed at both large and small scales. On the cons side, geothermal power plants can only be built in certain locations, they are often expensive to build at first, and they can cause surface instability and earthquakes.
Is geothermal a reliable energy source?
Geothermal energy is a very reliable source of power. One of the biggest advantages of geothermal energy is that geothermal power is a very predictable and reliable source of energy, especially in comparison to other renewable energy resources like wind energy and solar energy.
What is geothermal energy, applications, uses?
Natural Air Conditioning. Another use of this type of energy is natural cooling.
What do companies use geothermal energy?
Industrial applications of geothermal energy include food dehydration (drying), gold mining, and milk pasteurizing. Click to enlarge Geothermal electricity generation