How We Can Use Geothermal Energy
There are a variety of ways in which we are able to use geothermal energy and some of the ways in which we use this energy source have been around for hundreds, if not thousands of years.
A popular method of using geothermal energy is to install a ground source heat pump in a development.
This technology makes use of hundreds of meters of piping that's laid a few meters under the ground.
The technology behind this use of geothermal energy relies on pumping cold water through the piping system and during its journey it absorbs some of the heat contained within the ground.
When the water emerges at the other end of the piping system (a few degrees higher than when it entered), it can be fed into a boiler that would then heat the water further in order to provide a source of hot water for a home or business.
The above use of geothermal energy may sound insignificant at first thought but it can save a significant amount of energy when heating water as the temperature of the water at first use is a few degrees higher than it would be from a cold source and therefore, less energy is needed to heat the water up to the required temperature.
A more industrial use of a geothermal energy is to provide a source of electricity.
Although there are various designs of geothermal power stations, this more technical approach generally blasts water deep into the ground through an "injection well".
The water is then heated by the earth to extent that it produces steam which then vents through an "extraction well" which feeds the steam through a turbine, creating electricity.
The concept of using steam to drive a turbine is used in a variety of power station designs including those that make use of coal and nuclear energy sources.
The key advantage to using geothermal energy to drive a turbine is that the process is much more environmentally friendly than fossil fuel alternatives such as coal.
A disadvantage of how we can use geothermal energy in this way is that there are few areas of the earth in which the process can occur in an economically viable way.
Other ways of how we can use geothermal energy can be explained by going back to the roman times.
Roman baths were built of thermal spring sites which had the water heated by geothermal activity.
Although this was more of a mystical process back then and nobody could truly understand how the water was heated, it shows that this energy source has been used by man for a very long time.
A popular method of using geothermal energy is to install a ground source heat pump in a development.
This technology makes use of hundreds of meters of piping that's laid a few meters under the ground.
The technology behind this use of geothermal energy relies on pumping cold water through the piping system and during its journey it absorbs some of the heat contained within the ground.
When the water emerges at the other end of the piping system (a few degrees higher than when it entered), it can be fed into a boiler that would then heat the water further in order to provide a source of hot water for a home or business.
The above use of geothermal energy may sound insignificant at first thought but it can save a significant amount of energy when heating water as the temperature of the water at first use is a few degrees higher than it would be from a cold source and therefore, less energy is needed to heat the water up to the required temperature.
A more industrial use of a geothermal energy is to provide a source of electricity.
Although there are various designs of geothermal power stations, this more technical approach generally blasts water deep into the ground through an "injection well".
The water is then heated by the earth to extent that it produces steam which then vents through an "extraction well" which feeds the steam through a turbine, creating electricity.
The concept of using steam to drive a turbine is used in a variety of power station designs including those that make use of coal and nuclear energy sources.
The key advantage to using geothermal energy to drive a turbine is that the process is much more environmentally friendly than fossil fuel alternatives such as coal.
A disadvantage of how we can use geothermal energy in this way is that there are few areas of the earth in which the process can occur in an economically viable way.
Other ways of how we can use geothermal energy can be explained by going back to the roman times.
Roman baths were built of thermal spring sites which had the water heated by geothermal activity.
Although this was more of a mystical process back then and nobody could truly understand how the water was heated, it shows that this energy source has been used by man for a very long time.
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