There are a number of different forms of renewable energy and geothermal power is one of them. This gets its energy from the latent heat that is present in the Earth and is most often used in the form of ground source heat pumps. We'll be looking at the environmental benefits that you get from ground source heating in this article.
Power Stations
This article will mostly focus on the use of ground source heat pumps, but a brief word will be said about power stations that are powered from geothermal power. They are not very common because there aren't many places that they are efficient enough to be worth it.
The way that power stations of this sort work is very similar to the way that conventional power stations work. You have turbines which are spun by the steam that is let off from hot water. The difference is that the heat in this case comes from the ground, whereas usually it comes from burning fossil fuels.
If you're interested in creating electricity on your property then this is clearly not going to be a suitable way of doing it as it requires such a lot of space and equipment. In fact if that is what you want then the best thing to do is to make use of solar energy by getting PV solar panels.
Just because geothermal plants are not used very much though, that doesn't mean that they are not helping the environment. Each unit of energy that we get from renewable sources is helping to reduce the quantity of fossil fuels that we have to burn. And because of the threat of global warming we have to reduce the amount of fossil fuels we are using as much as possible.
Global Warming
By continuing to burn fossil fuels we are continuing to let more and more CO2 in to the atmosphere. Which wouldn't be a problem if it were not for the fact that this is a greenhouse gas which makes the Earth warmer. Past a certain point the planet becomes too warm and then there can be all sorts of disastrous consequences.
Unfortunately though we are currently too dependent on fossil fuels to be able to stop using it without an alternative being in place to take over. If we did just go cold turkey then we would have a worldwide economic collapse that there would be no recovering from and many people would die.
Of course it's not just electricity that we need to generate from a renewable source. It's also the heat that we use to provide our homes with hot water and central heating. One of the ways that this can be done is by using ground source heat pumps.
Ground Source Heat Pumps
The way that ground source heat pumps can help is by fulfilling many of your hot water and central heating needs. So you get the heat that is present in the ground, and have it transferred to your home to take care of your heating. That's geothermal power.
This does not mean that you will be able to get rid of your boiler altogether though. It might be that you need more heat than is provided by the heat pump, so the boiler may be needed for a bit of extra heating. It's going to need much less energy though due to the fact that the water will already by warm.
It's also necessary to put some energy in to the system to get a heat pump to work. However you get out between 3-5 times more heat energy than the electrical energy that you have to put in to get the pumps to work. That is the equivalent of having a boiler that is 300-500% efficient. So this is certainly helping the environment.
Power Stations
This article will mostly focus on the use of ground source heat pumps, but a brief word will be said about power stations that are powered from geothermal power. They are not very common because there aren't many places that they are efficient enough to be worth it.
The way that power stations of this sort work is very similar to the way that conventional power stations work. You have turbines which are spun by the steam that is let off from hot water. The difference is that the heat in this case comes from the ground, whereas usually it comes from burning fossil fuels.
If you're interested in creating electricity on your property then this is clearly not going to be a suitable way of doing it as it requires such a lot of space and equipment. In fact if that is what you want then the best thing to do is to make use of solar energy by getting PV solar panels.
Just because geothermal plants are not used very much though, that doesn't mean that they are not helping the environment. Each unit of energy that we get from renewable sources is helping to reduce the quantity of fossil fuels that we have to burn. And because of the threat of global warming we have to reduce the amount of fossil fuels we are using as much as possible.
Global Warming
By continuing to burn fossil fuels we are continuing to let more and more CO2 in to the atmosphere. Which wouldn't be a problem if it were not for the fact that this is a greenhouse gas which makes the Earth warmer. Past a certain point the planet becomes too warm and then there can be all sorts of disastrous consequences.
Unfortunately though we are currently too dependent on fossil fuels to be able to stop using it without an alternative being in place to take over. If we did just go cold turkey then we would have a worldwide economic collapse that there would be no recovering from and many people would die.
Of course it's not just electricity that we need to generate from a renewable source. It's also the heat that we use to provide our homes with hot water and central heating. One of the ways that this can be done is by using ground source heat pumps.
Ground Source Heat Pumps
The way that ground source heat pumps can help is by fulfilling many of your hot water and central heating needs. So you get the heat that is present in the ground, and have it transferred to your home to take care of your heating. That's geothermal power.
This does not mean that you will be able to get rid of your boiler altogether though. It might be that you need more heat than is provided by the heat pump, so the boiler may be needed for a bit of extra heating. It's going to need much less energy though due to the fact that the water will already by warm.
It's also necessary to put some energy in to the system to get a heat pump to work. However you get out between 3-5 times more heat energy than the electrical energy that you have to put in to get the pumps to work. That is the equivalent of having a boiler that is 300-500% efficient. So this is certainly helping the environment.
About the Author:
To discover more about ground source heat pumps, author Thomas Richards has written lots more about the subject at http://geothermalpower.org.uk. Learn more about the way it all functions, such as how much money you'll be able to make, also you can get a free quotation for a solar installation.
