Next Generation Energy

Since I'm a closet classicist, let's start by breaking down geothermal from the Greek, Gus Portokalos style:

Okay. Geothermal comes from the Greek word geo, meaning earth, and therme, meaning heat. So, what do you energize your house with? You see: Heat from the earth. Geothermal. There you go!

So the source of geothermal energy is heat below the Earth's surface. Steam and hot water generated there provide electricity and heat buildings. And since rain replenishes the water involved and heat is continuously produced...it's completely renewable! Direct use has no negative impact on our environment and geothermal plants gives off low emissions. Not bad, eh?

Let's take a look at the science involved:

Geothermal energy starts about 4,000 miles below us. At the earth's core, temperatures hotter than the sun's surface are continuously produced by the slow decay of radioactive particles--a process that happens in all rocks. This region is made up of a solid iron core and second outer core of magma. An 1,800-mile-thick mantle surrounds the core comprised of magma and rock. Finally, the crust is 3-5 miles thick under the ocean and 15-35 thick under continents.

The last layer is broken into plates and magma comes close to the earth's surface near their edges where we have volcanoes and fumaroles. Hot stuff. So we've got these naturally occurring large areas of resources known as geothermal reservoirs we use for direct and district heating systems, electricity generation, and geothermal heat pumps to control building temperatures above ground. Here in the US of A, geothermal reservoirs are mainly found in the west. California leads the pack with 33 power plants and generates nearly 90 percent of our geothermal electricity.

Think it's all just a lot of hot air? Be assured geothermal is an emerging technology we'll be hearing much more about. It currently serves close to six million people in this country generating household energy--half of which get their electricity from geothermal power plants.

So what about globally? Well, according to the Geothermal Energy Association:

The United States continues to be one of the key countries in increasing geothermal growth. According to energy data, the United States still remains the world leader in online capacity of geothermal energy, leading with 30% of the world total. As of August 2008, geothermal electric power generation is occurring in seven U.S. states: Alaska, California, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Idaho. Other states, such as Oregon and Wyoming, are soon to be added to the list. As of August 2008, the United States has a total installed capacity of 2957.94 MW.

Watch this one folks. Record numbers are expected to attend the Geothermal Energy 2008 Conference and Expo next month in Reno.