Geothermal energy is visible in our magnificent nature: hot springs, geysers and magma from the volcanoes are all manifestations of this geothermal energy
By Earth.org
Here, we explore the main advantages and disadvantages of geothermal energy and the way we should regard it.
Geothermal energy is a natural and renewable source of energy that comes from the ground.
What is Geothermal Energy?
The word geothermal comes from the Greek words geo (earth) and therme (heat), and geothermal energy is a renewable energy source because heat is continuously produced inside the earth. Many technologies have been developed to take advantage of geothermal energy:
Hot water or steam reservoirs deep in the earth that are accessed by drilling
Geothermal reservoirs located near the earth's surface, mostly located in the western U.S., Alaska, and Hawaii
The shallow ground near the Earth's surface that maintains a relatively constant temperature of 50-60°F.
This variety of geothermal resources allows them to be used on both large and small scales. A utility can use the hot water and steam from reservoirs to drive generators and produce electricity for its customers. Other applications apply the heat produced from geothermal directly to various uses in buildings, roads, agriculture, and industrial plants. Still others use the heat directly from the ground to provide heating and cooling in homes and other buildings.
A geothermal power plant works similarly to a coal-fired power station or a nuclear power plant; it generates electricity by channeling steam to rotate turbines. However, steam in a geothermal power plant is not manually generated through burning coal or nuclear fission but is rather produced by natural heat under the Earth. As we know, the structure of the Earth is made up of four different layers: the crust, the mantle, the outer core, and the inner core. The estimated temperature of the inner core is about 5,200C, and a geothermal power plant utilizes this natural thermal energy from the core to get the steam. Most geothermal power plants are built along the boundaries of the tectonic plates where the crust is thinnest at the boundaries, and heat reaches the surface more easily – usually in the form of magma.
Typically, there are three types of geothermal power plants: dry steam, flash steam, and binary steam. Dry steam is the most straightforward method to obtain geothermal energy in which steam is directly extracted from the ground and sent to turbines that generate electricity.
But flash steam is the most commonly applied method. The boiling point of water is higher when it is under greater pressure; since the pressure under the ground is higher, the boiling point of water is therefore also higher. When the highly-pressurised hot water under the ground is extracted to the surface, its boiling point drops significantly, then the water evaporates and “flashes” instantly into steam to drive the turbines. Once the steam cools, it turns back into liquid water and is injected once again into the ground to ensure that there is enough water underground to carry heat.
Lastly, binary steam is the most complicated of the three methods. It uses hot water from the ground as a mediator to heat another liquid to be converted into steam instead. The secondary fluid needs to have a lower boiling point than water as well as to be safe and environmentally-friendly. In this case, pressurised butane and pentane are typically used as the fluid.
The United States is the country that generates the most electricity with geothermal energy. Most of the geothermal power plants in the US are located in western states and Hawaii since they are closer to the boundaries of the tectonic plates. Despite being the world’s largest producer, geothermal energy only accounts for about 0.4% of the total generation of electricity in the US.
You might also like: How Important is Geothermal Power in the World’s Shift to Clean Energy?
What are Geothermal Energy Advantages and Disadvantages?
1. Environment
Carbon dioxide is not created during the production of geothermal energy, but it can emit a slight t amount of greenhouse gases and air pollution depending on the method applied to extract heat. In dry steam or flash steam power plants, small amounts of greenhouse gases and pollutants that are naturally present underground will be released into the atmosphere during extraction.
On the other hand, in binary steam power plants, carbon emissions can be limited to zero since the steam does not directly come from underground. It is estimated that the average global CO2 emission of geothermal power plants is 122 g/kWh, about 10 times less than coal and petroleum.
2. Efficiency
One of the biggest disadvantages of geothermal energy is that its adoption has many limitations: the location of power plants needs to be close to the boundaries of the tectonic plates while making sure that the level of CO2 inside the geothermal reservoirs is low. At the same time, plants may trigger earthquakes as it alters the Earth’s structure by digging. Therefore, geothermal power plants must be kept away from populations, which reduces the options for sites.
Yet, how efficient is it for those countries that enjoy the geographical advantage? The energy return on investment (EROI) of geothermal energy is about nine, meaning that nine units of output can be produced by one unit of input. The score is not particularly high, considering that solar energy has a score of 10, and wind energy has a score of 18. Nevertheless, geothermal energy possesses some unique advantages, such as its high reliability.
Geothermal energy does not face the problem of intermittency that bothers solar and wind power, as the heat of the Earth’s core is always consistent.
As a result, we can accurately calculate and predict the electricity generation of geothermal power plants.
Each energy has its pros and cons; some sources are effective in one country, and some are not. What we should be doing is not comparing the efficiency of different renewable energy sources in a shallow manner but comparing their efficiency according to the relative advantages of each specific location. Seeing that the use of geothermal energy has been constantly increasing at a growth rate of 2% per year while the cost of operations have been decreasing, it is projected that global geothermal energy can provide around 800-1300 TWh per year in 2050, contributing 2-3% to global electricity generation. Geothermal energy has its advantages and disadvantages, it will unlikely play a huge role in the transition to renewable energy – though it is still an indispensable part of it.
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