Source: Energy.gov
Geothermal energy is heat energy from the earth—geo (earth) + thermal (heat). Geothermal resources are reservoirs of hot water that exist or are human-made at varying temperatures and depths below the earth’s surface. Wells, ranging from a few feet to several miles deep, can be drilled into underground reservoirs to tap steam and very hot water that can be brought to the surface for use in a variety of applications, including:
Electricity Generation | Using natural or human-made permeability and fractures, the fluid flows through the hot rocks, absorbing heat from the rocks that can be drawn up through wells to Earth’s surface. That heat energy is then converted to steam, which drives turbines that produce electricity.
Heating & Cooling | Geothermal heat pumps provide heating and cooling using the ground as a heat sink, absorbing excess heat when the aboveground temperatures are warmer, and as a heat source when aboveground temperatures are cooler.
Direct Use | Geothermal direct use applications use wells—usually deeper than those for heat pumps—to draw hot water from the subsurface to directly provide hot water to buildings
Benefits of Geothermal Energy
Renewal | The heat flowing from Earth’s interior is continually replenished by the decay of naturally occurring radioactive elements and will remain available for billions of years.
Firm and Flexible | They produce electricity consistently and can run essentially 24/7, regardless of weather conditions. They can also ramp generation up or down to respond to changes in electricity demand.
Domestic | U.S. geothermal resources can be harnessed for power production and heating and cooling without importing fuel.
Small footprint | Geothermal power plants and geothermal heat pumps are compact, using way less land then other renewal energy plants and can be retrofitted or integrated in new buildings.
Clean | Modern geothermal power plants emit no greenhouse gasses and have life cycle emissions 4x lower than solar PV. Geothermal power plants consume less water on average over the lifetime energy output than most conventional electricity-generation technologies.
Interested in converting your home to geothermal energy?
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