Geothermal Power and Its Uses
The heat within the earth's unique molten core could be converted into electricity.
This particular core consists primarily of extremely warm fluid rock called magma.
This "geothermal" heat circulates around the rock or is transferred to underground reservoirs of water, which also circulate within the earth's crust.
Because of the close to unlimited capability of the earth to generate magma, and the continuous transfer of heat between subsurface rock and water, geothermal energy is considered a renewable resource.
Geothermal resources are already harnessed as an energy source since beginning of the world, when natural hot springs were very first used in cooking and bathing.
The geothermal resources drawn on to generate electrical power are much more extreme than those used for space heating and can stay as deeply as 10,000 feet beneath the earth's area.
Capital costs for the building of geothermal power facilities are much higher than for huge coal-fired plants or new natural gas generator technologies.
But geothermal plants have affordable operation and routine maintenance charges with no fuel costs.
Although more expensive than wind power in most cases, new geothermal electricity generation facilities are progressively competing with non-renewable choices.
The majority of power plants need vapor to produce electrical power.
The steam goes around a turbine which triggers an electrical generator, that produces electricity.
Numerous power plants nevertheless use non-renewable fuels to boil water for steam.
Geothermal power plants, however, use steam produced from tanks of hot water identified a couple of miles or even more below the Earth's surface.
There are three types of geothermal power plants: dry steam, flash steam, and binary cycle.
Dry steam power plants draw from underground resources of steam.
The steam is piped completely from underground water wells towards the power plant, where it is redirected right into a turbine/generator unit.
There are actually just two recognized undercover resources of steam in the United States: The Geysers in northern California and Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, where there's a well-known geyser called Old Faithful.
Considering that Yellowstone is guarded from development, the only dry steam plants in the country are in The Geysers.
This particular core consists primarily of extremely warm fluid rock called magma.
This "geothermal" heat circulates around the rock or is transferred to underground reservoirs of water, which also circulate within the earth's crust.
Because of the close to unlimited capability of the earth to generate magma, and the continuous transfer of heat between subsurface rock and water, geothermal energy is considered a renewable resource.
Geothermal resources are already harnessed as an energy source since beginning of the world, when natural hot springs were very first used in cooking and bathing.
The geothermal resources drawn on to generate electrical power are much more extreme than those used for space heating and can stay as deeply as 10,000 feet beneath the earth's area.
Capital costs for the building of geothermal power facilities are much higher than for huge coal-fired plants or new natural gas generator technologies.
But geothermal plants have affordable operation and routine maintenance charges with no fuel costs.
Although more expensive than wind power in most cases, new geothermal electricity generation facilities are progressively competing with non-renewable choices.
The majority of power plants need vapor to produce electrical power.
The steam goes around a turbine which triggers an electrical generator, that produces electricity.
Numerous power plants nevertheless use non-renewable fuels to boil water for steam.
Geothermal power plants, however, use steam produced from tanks of hot water identified a couple of miles or even more below the Earth's surface.
There are three types of geothermal power plants: dry steam, flash steam, and binary cycle.
Dry steam power plants draw from underground resources of steam.
The steam is piped completely from underground water wells towards the power plant, where it is redirected right into a turbine/generator unit.
There are actually just two recognized undercover resources of steam in the United States: The Geysers in northern California and Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, where there's a well-known geyser called Old Faithful.
Considering that Yellowstone is guarded from development, the only dry steam plants in the country are in The Geysers.
Source...