Geothermal Energy is a renewable natural resource found in abundance on earth. It is clean and can help us achieve our environmental vision. Geothermal energy, also known as Earth Heat has been fully harnessed by the Geothermal Heat Pump technology. Geothermal heat pump technology harnesses this energy to provide an incredible, efficient, and reliable heating and cooling in both commercial and residential buildings. This technology offers an ideal, environmentally friendly way of heating and cooling workplaces, schools, homes, etc. it can be installed virtually anywhere. Geothermal energy is very useful and presents only little environmental impacts. For instance, geothermal hot springs can supply necessary energy for municipal heating systems, greenhouses, and fish farms; geothermal power plants can make use steams and super-hot water created by deep geologic activity to generate electrical power for lots of consumers. Here are other important uses of Geothermal energy:
Geothermal Heat Pump (GHP) Technology
This is powered by using the ground-source geothermal energy of about 40˚ to 70˚F ground temperatures obtainable everywhere below the earth surface. This is useful and efficient for heating and cooling residential and commercial buildings compared to other conventional systems. What Geothermal heat pump does is to pass water via a closed loop of plastic pipes that are laid out horizontally in shallow channels or inserted into vertical boreholes. During summer, the system conducts heat into the ground away from the building and during winter, the system would tap heat from the ground back into the building. Geothermal heat pump can also be used to heat water for domestic use. GHP can cut down on the amount of energy (electrical power, fossil fuel, etc.) that is used by residential commercial buildings by about 45 percent. The Geothermal heat pump requires a very little measure of electrical power and very little maintenance for providing a reliable heating and cooling for building all year round.
Geothermal Energy Direct Use
This is achieved by directly harnessing geothermal springs and aquifers for use in Spas, Resorts, Greenhouses, Aquaculture. In some places where nature provides geologically and mountainous active parts like aquifers and geothermal springs. These produce hot springs of moderate-temperature (90˚ to 200˚F) waters for heating, healing, cooking, bathing, and other commercial purposes directly from the Earth. Where necessary resources are in place, these geothermal springs can also be used for municipal district heating. This system is very useful and has little to no efficiency losses, this is because the hot water is applied directly from the source to purpose. It is also less expensive as only pumps and pipes are needed.
Geothermal Power
Geothermal energy is very useful for the generation of large-scale electrical power for the Grid and uses volcanic deep resource temperatures, which is about 200˚ to 700˚F. For instance, in some places in the western U.S., natural volcanic forces, as well as other geologic forces, have generated very hot and deep geothermal fluid systems that can be harnessed for the development of power plants. Creating a successful geothermal fluid power system requires a number of considerations such as risk tolerance, large capital, great technical know-how, expensive drilling of wells up to about 2 miles deep with large diameters, and construction of complex turbine technologies and power plants that may cost nothing less than $100 million. Geothermal power plants are more reliable and can generate constant electrical powers in contrast to solar and wind power plants.
