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Renewables—The Future’s (only) Hope!
Published in Anco S. Blazev, Energy Security for The 21st Century, 2021
This makes them intermittent and not fully reliable for large-scale power generation. So, until new ways to store their energy for use 24/7 are implemented, solar and wind power use will be marginal. Geothermal energy uses the earth’s internal heat to heat buildings or generate electricity. It is available at all times at anyplace where we access it; limited only by our technological capabilities.Ocean waves and tides are a truly renewable energy source that can be used for power generation. Expansion is limited by location and our technical capabilities. for now.
Linking Microgrids with Renewable Generation
Published in Stephen A. Roosa, Fundamentals of Microgrids, 2020
The more ubiquitous uses of geothermal (Earth heat) energy resources are grouped into the categories of direct use and geothermal heat pump applications. Less common is the use of the Earth’s subsurface heat to generate electricity. Basically, the process involves extracting the heat from the Earth’s molten core and using it to drive a turbine and generator to generate electricity. This core consists primarily of extremely high temperature liquid rock known as magma. The heat circulating within the rock is transferred to underground reservoirs of water which circulate under the Earth’s crust. The geothermal resources tapped to generate electricity are intense and can reside as deep as 10,000 feet (about 3,050 m) below the Earth’s surface [21]. The closer the resource to the Earth’s surface, the less the costs of drilling.
Renewable Energy Resources
Published in Julie Kerr, Introduction to Energy and Climate, 2017
The word geothermal comes from the Greek words geo (earth) and therme (heat). Geothermal energy is heat from within the earth. This heat can be recovered as steam or as hot water, and it can be used to heat buildings or to generate electricity. Geothermal energy is a renewable energy source because the heat is continuously produced inside the earth. The energy is generated in the earth’s core. Temperatures hotter than the sun’s surface are continuously produced inside the earth caused by the slow decay of radioactive particles, a process that happens in all rocks (Figure 11.4). The earth has a number of different layers: The core has a solid inner core and an outer core made of hot melted rock called magma.The mantle surrounds the core and is about 2,897 kilometers thick. The mantle is made up of magma and rock.The crust is the outermost layer of the earth. The crust forms the continents and ocean floors. The crust can be 5–8 kilometers thick under the oceans and 24–56 kilometers thick on the continents.
Environmental and human health impacts of geothermal exploitation in China and mitigation strategies
Published in Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, 2023
Yuanan Hu, Hefa Cheng, Shu Tao
While the overall environmental impacts of geothermal exploitation are well recognized to be much less compared to the production of fossil fuels, and the emissions of CO2 and other air pollutants from geothermal power are significantly lower than those of fossil-fuel-fired power generation (Tester et al., 2006), geothermal energy is not free of environmental impacts. Figure 1 depicts the potential environmental impacts that could arise from geothermal exploitation. Geothermal fluid is the primarily source of pollutants from geothermal fields and geothermal facilities. Pollution of surface water and groundwater by natural geothermal activities and geothermal projects has been widely documented, while soil pollution, which is related to the surface water and groundwater pollution, is also quite common. In contrast, air pollution at geothermal fields and geothermal facilities are less reported, primarily due to the rapid dispersion of gaseous pollutants released from geothermal fluids. The solid wastes generated from the development and operation of geothermal projects could cause soil pollution, while these activities also affect the natural habitats and thus negatively impact biodiversity.
A revisit to the relationship between geothermal energy growth and underground water quality in EU economies
Published in Environmental Technology, 2022
Mohd Alsaleh, Tinggui Chen, Abdul Samad Abdul-Rahim
The coefficient on geothermal energy output in Model 3 (see Table 6) is discovered to be negative but statistically significant at a 10% statistical level over the long term, demonstrating a negative association between geothermal energy output and subsurface water availability in the EU developing members. It implies that when the amount of geothermal energy consumption increases among the EU rising countries, there would be a higher level of degradation of subsurface water. Specifically, when geothermal energy usage inclines by 1%, there will be a decline of 0.293% in the supply of underground water among the European Union's emerging nations. This support the view of Bonte [54]; Griebler et al. [56]; Nogara and Zarrouk [58]; Tomaszewska et al. [17]. This report interprets that the emerging members of the European Union could attain their aims on renewable energy just by increasing the level of consumption of geothermal. Conversely, the exploitation of geothermal power is frequently accompanied by detrimental impacts on the environment. Among these are the chemical substances that result in the degradation of underground water quality, the threat of water pollution, damage to living organisms, and hazards to public health.
Integrative technology hubs for urban food-energy-water nexuses and cost-benefit-risk tradeoffs (I): Global trend and technology metrics
Published in Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, 2021
Ni-Bin Chang, Uzzal Hossain, Andrea Valencia, Jiangxiao Qiu, Qipeng P. Zheng, Lixing Gu, Mengnan Chen, Jia-Wei Lu, Ana Pires, Chelsea Kaandorp, Edo Abraham, Marie-Claire ten Veldhuis, Nick van de Giesen, Bruno Molle, Severine Tomas, Nassim Ait-Mouheb, Deborah Dotta, Rémi Declercq, Martin Perrin, Léon Conradi, Geoffrey Molle
Geothermal, heat or thermal energy within the earth, is a clean and renewable source of energy, and is used for different applications such as heating water for bathing, heating buildings, and generating electricity. Due to its potential, the installed capacity of geothermal power plants is expected to grow to 140–160 GW by 2050 (Ellabban et al., 2014). Geothermal energy is green due to its insignificant CO2 emissions compared to other technologies. According to the literature, carbon emissions are about 0.06 kg CO2e/kWh for a single-flash power plant compared to 0.59 kg CO2e/kWh for a natural-gas-fired power plant, and 1.13 kg CO2e/kWh for a coal-fired power plant (DiPippo, 2012). Note that CO2e is defined as the equivalent emissions of CO2 when other greenhouse gases are involved. Descriptions of geothermal energy technologies such as electricity production (G1-EP), direct use (G2-DU) and heat pump (G3-HP) are given in Supplementary Information (S1.1). The technological considerations of some of the decentralized geothermal energy technologies are described in Table S3 (Supplementary Information).