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Geothermal energy is a renewable energy source and it is deduced from the heat of the Earth. Geothermal energy is a huge, unused heat and power resource which is reliable, clean, and made in the U.S.A! This means that geothermal energy is greenhouse gas friendly, there is an indefinite supply, and we don't have to depend on foreign oil prices and politics.

Resources for geothermal energy can be found from shallow ground reservoirs to hot water and rocks several miles deep, all the way down to the Earth's core where magma is found. Since magma is denser than rock it rises up to just under the Earth's surface (very rarely does it come all the up to the surface where it is known as lava) where it heats nearby rocks and water from rainwater seeping down into it. Some of the geothermal water from the rainwater travels up through cracks and faults and reaches the Earth's surface as hot springs and geysers. Most geothermal water stays deep underground and is known as a geothermal reservoir. Another resource for geothermal energy is drilling wells into underground reservoirs to tap extremely hot water and steam; for use in a variety of practical uses. Most underground geothermal reservoirs in the U.S. are located out west including; Alaska and Hawaii.

There are three basic categories of geothermal energy; geothermal water, electric power generation, and geo-exchange systems. Each one of these categories has their own specialized technologies, with geo-exchange systems being the fastest growing geothermal energy source around the world. To harness, store, and distribute geothermal energy there has to be a power plant to generate electricity from the geo thermal reservoirs. There are three types of power plants that are in operation today; dry steam, flash steam, and binary-cycle plants.

Dry steam power plants are the oldest geothermal power plants built and used. These types of geothermal power plants use steam from the geothermal reservoir and goes to the wells that were drilled and takes it to a turbine to the generator, which is what produces the electricity.

Flash steam power plants are the most common geothermal power plants that are operating today. They make electricity by using hydrothermal fluids that are more than 360 Degrees Fahrenheit and it is sprayed into a tank under low pressures making the hydrothermal fluid to quickly vaporize or flash steam.

Binary-cycle plants are different than dry steam and flash steam plants because the water or steam that is collected from the geothermal reservoir never directly goes through the turbine and generator. Most geothermal areas contain moderate water temperature below 400 Degrees Fahrenheit, where the secondary (binary) fluid lower than the boiling point turns the secondary fluid that will drive the turbines. Binary-cycle geothermal power plants will be more common in the near future.

Within the next decade geothermal electricity will be considered by the U.S. Department of Energy as a cost competitive energy source, which the geothermal industry is focusing on now to achieve a three to five cent per kilowatt-hour cost.



Jason Grace
on behalf of the
BascoTec Internet Limited
Technologie Park 13
33100 Paderborn
Germany

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