As the world grapples with the urgent need to shift toward cleaner energy sources, the question remains: how can we tap into sustainable resources without depleting our planet? Fossil fuels continue to dominate, leaving a trail of environmental destruction and uncertainty about the future of energy. This pressing issue demands innovative solutions that are not only efficient but also eco-friendly.
Enter geothermal energy—a renewable powerhouse lying just beneath our feet. Often overlooked, this natural heat source holds the potential to revolutionize the way we power our lives. But is it the ultimate answer to our energy crisis, or does it come with challenges of its own?
In this article, we’ll explore how geothermal energy works, weigh its pros and cons, and dive into the exciting innovations shaping its future. Could this be the solution we’ve been waiting for? Let’s find out.
How Does Geothermal Energy Work?
Geothermal energy as you can clearly understand is made out of two words Geo meaning earth and thermal which means heat. So in simple terms, this is the heat energy that comes from the earth that is used as a renewable source of energy around the world. In some areas, it is available in such high quantities that businesses harness it for generating electricity. As per some data it outperforms the conventional sources of energy.
It is the availability of hot water deep inside the earth that enables us to harness energy out of its steam. This makes us wonder how does geothermal energy work.
The way that geothermal energy is used nowadays is by digging wells after land inspection. These wells can be a few feet to several miles deep inside the Earth’s crust from where water is taken out for different applications.
This renewable form of energy has many uses with the main use being electricity generation. Here’s how it works:
Generating Electricity
Deep inside the Earth’s crust, there are reservoirs of hot permeable fluid substances that contain water, magma, and rocks. This heat is absorbed from wells dug deep or from fissures and drawn to the surface. You may wonder what is geothermal energy used for. Well, the heat is converted into steam which is used to run turbines that generate electricity.
Heating and Cooling
Geothermal energy has many applications for heating and cooling useful for industries and even homes. Let us know how does geothermal power plant work for heating and cooling.
The heat pumps use the ground as a sink we can harness excess heat when the temperature is warm enough. It acts as a heat source for the ground above when the temperature is cooler on the Earth’s surface. The heating and cooling systems use geothermal energy to either heat or cool buildings, and campuses.
Direct Use
Let us tell you how does geothermal energy work simple explanation. It has many applications in industries and factories. Here the hot water from the deep reservoirs underground is taken out for different heating purposes. For example, some of the areas in which it is used are for drying pulp, lumber, and other materials.
Types of Geothermal Systems
You might not be able to think about how is geothermal energy generated. Well, many types of geothermal energy are available. The type of system that we use to harness it will depend on different factors such as the soil conditions, climate, installation cost, inspection cost, and so on.
Closed Loop System
This can have further subgroups like
- Horizontal
- Vertical
- Pond
Open Loop System
You can refer to any geothermal energy diagram of an open loop system to get a clear idea about this. Here are its sub-types-
- Pond
- Standing Well
Advantages of Geothermal Energy
Let us now look at the several advantages of geothermal energy that are directly sourced from the Earth below.
Being Reliable Always
If you consider geothermal energy it is always a much more reliable source of energy. You may wonder is geothermal energy renewable, well of course it is since the core always heats the earth to create magma and permeable fluid.
It is certainly more reliable than wind or solar energy which may vary on the weather conditions. This consistent power generation from geothermal energy means that it can be used at a large scale for providing power to large industrial plants without worrying about the season or weather.
Geothermal Power Plants Can be Built in a Much Smaller Area
You do not need large areas of land to harness geothermal energy. This is one major benefit when you compare it with wind or solar energy. You see both these forms of energy need to be collected and for this, we need large swaths of land stretching out several hundred hectares.
A geothermal power plant on the other hand can be set up in much less area on the ground since it is collecting all the energy from underneath the Earth. If you have queries on how does geothermal energy work, well here is how it goes- after collecting the energy and converting it into steam it is used to run turbines to generate power.
To give you some geothermal energy examples, 1 gigawatt-hour of electricity output will only need 404 square miles of land. To generate the same amount of power using solar energy would need about 1335 square miles and 2340 square miles for wind energy.
Geothermal Energy has Both Large and Small scale Applications
As we told you above, geothermal energy can be harnessed to run large power plants, factories, and industries while also applied to small homes and communities. So how does geothermal energy work in a house?
With the help of geothermal heat pumps, district power distributors can use them to cool and heat homes depending on the season. For this, we need low-temperature reservoirs which are available almost anywhere. You can refer to how does geothermal energy work diagram to understand it in detail.
Disadvantages of Geothermal Energy
Let us now check out some of the disadvantages of this form of energy.
Location Dependent
Probably one of the biggest issues with geothermal energy is it being dependent on the location. To run most large-scale applications profitably you need large swaths of reservoirs deep underneath the ground which are unfortunately not available in just about any location.
Most areas where they can be found are near tectonic plate hotspots or active fault zones.
If you have queries on how does biomass energy work the answer to it is quite similar to the way geothermal energy works.
To scale up geothermal energy power plants we need to study a lot about their distribution across the land surface to begin construction of a large factory or power plant so that the entire project is feasible.
Setting Up Large Plants May Cause Earthquakes
To construct a large-scale geothermal energy power plant you need to dig up really large holes several miles deep to find out hot trapped water in fissures and rock formations. This digging process of large wells can lead to earthquakes as per studies.
Other Side Effects to the Environment
One of the downsides of how does geothermal energy physics is the emission of large-scale poisonous gas from underneath the earth’s surface. Deep inside the earth permeable fluid and magma have many poisonous gases which are released to the surface of the earth while the plant is in operation. This creates a hazardous zone for air contamination surrounding the power plant. It further restricts their location since they cannot be built close to towns and cities due to this hazard.
The Way Ahead for Geothermal Energy and Innovations
Next-generation technology like Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) is an aim where researchers are looking to create conditions in those areas where earlier harnessing it would not be feasible.
This will help other countries to develop power plants for using this energy. But how does solar energy work? Well, here the energy from the sunlight and heat is made into electric energy.
As per research, this sort of advanced technological system has many benefits like minimizing the lad usage needs. It is estimated that we will be able to harness about 120 gigawatts of energy annually using these advanced projects by the year 2050.
Geothermal energy is a renewable energy source that utilizes heat from beneath the Earth’s surface for power generation, heating, and cooling applications.
Right now the USA is the leader across the world when it comes to generating geothermal energy and its use. It has a production capacity of about 4 gigawatts annually. To give you an idea this number is enough to meet energy needs in 3 million homes.
The reason why geothermal energy is more reliable is because it is not dependent on the weather. Once the plant is set up you can run it round the clock to convert high energy underground steam to electricity. Plus, geothermal energy costs are also low.
Geothermal energy can be used to run large-scale power plants. Plus it can also be made to use for retail uses like to heat and cool off homes.
A study was done to find out how much does geothermal energy costs with the current power plants that are harnessing geothermal energy it is estimated that the cost is around 4000-5000 dollars to generate 1 kilowatt of power.
You may wonder if geothermal energy renewable or non-renewable. Well, it is a natural form of energy that never depletes.
Solar energy and nuclear energy are some of the other forms of energy widely in use today.
