Geothermal

Just what is geothermal energy, and what uses can it be put to? When geothermal heat (heat rising up from deep within the Earth) is used in the production of electricity it is called geothermal energy. And the variety of uses for this geothermal energy will amaze you.

First let's have a brief history lesson. In the modern era geothermal energy history began on the 4th of July in 1904 when Italian geothermal pioneer Prince Piero Ginori Conte tested the first known operational geothermal power plant in Larderello, Italy. He didn't choose this location by chance or by accident; the Prince chose the location because steam consistently vented up from the ground there at temperatures exceeding 400 degrees Fahrenheit, making it the ideal place to attempt to capture geothermal heat.

From this humble beginning at the dawn of the 20th century geo thermal has grown to be used in over seventy countries around the world.

How is the steam captured? There are a couple of methods: direct exchange geothermal and non-direct DX. The direct method tends to use fewer parts so it's considered to be more reliable. One of the disadvantages of geothermal energy is the use of plastic pipe instead of copper pipe in the non-direct method.

There are methods of using the captured heat and steam that don't involve converting it into electricity. If you've ever seen a movie with a bunch of Roman Senators sitting in their steamy pools of water you're correct in imagining that this was likely the result of geothermal heating. The ancient Romans found that it was possible to design geothermal heating systems that delivered both steam and hot water to buildings, and that they could heat not only their Roman baths but also the actual buildings themselves. When this geo thermal heating is delivered to several buildings from a single source, it is known as geothermal district heating.

Having mentioned both geothermal energy and geothermal heat, we should also consider a third use of geothermal. When a device called a geothermal heat pump is brought into the equation, we begin to achieve geothermal heating and cooling. The idea of geothermal heating systems is straightforward, logical and is easy enough to wrap our minds around, but geothermal cooling?

Using a loop system tied into a geothermal pump, the cooling process reverses the heating process by pulling the heat out of the air of your home and sending it into the ground. Whereas the heating system pumps heat out of the ground and into your house, the cooling process takes the heat from the house and puts it back into the Earth.

Sounds like something worth getting steamed up over!