Can geothermal energy be an effective source in the United States?
596937
Technology really insufficient to economically tap it. probably end up spending more than you'd save in most places.\nst\nMayhaps someday economies of scale may improve viability?
801669
There is a lot of possibilities starting from the simplest one which is wind generator.  More complicated would be water generation where a usually dam is build and potential energy of the water accumulated behind the dam moves water through turbines and generates power. Some other may include thermal energy of the earth. If you drill deep enough you will get to the earth crust zone where temperature is high to produce steam and this steam is converted (generated) into the electric power. Ocean waves are also source to generate energy.
463667
If you're talking about electricity generated from solar panels, it's not widely done because of how expensive it is to build and construct panels. The material (Germanium or Silicon) alone costs a lot to synthesize.\n\nWind power turns out to be a better alternative, if you consider the costs and benefits. Ocean-tide power may be good source of power too.\n\nNow look up "Dyson Sphere." This is another aspect of tapping solar power; Solar power tapped to the extreme, not for electricity, but for life; A solution for the evergrowing population of mankind. A Dyson Sphere is impossible to construct, but a few hundred years from now it may be possible to create a Dyson Belt, a collection of inhabitable planetoids built and placed in orbit 93 million miles from the sun (the same distance as the Earth).
673700
actualy, we have been doing it for a number of years. the only problem, is that we havent been able to create an environment that can eficiently retain the energy, the end result is always the same. we end up investing more energy than we can gain from it. we are working on one that is basicaly garentied to create more energy than we invest. the only problem is that the project is way over buget(like a billion dolars).
631765
We dont have the technology.\n\nAll the current technologies that we have for converting heat to electricity, really use in the difference in temperature as a source of energy. not heat itself.\n\nWhat that means is, if I have a large quantity of heat energy spread over a huge volume of gas, there is no efficient way of recovering that energy as electricity. whereas if the same energy is contained in a small amount of  gases, we can use it to drive various kinds of prime movers to generate elecricity.\n\nEven then, the effenciency of the systems converting heat energy to electricity is dismally low.\n\nWe were fortunate enough to discover technology that efficiently converts electric energy into heat and various other useful forms including light and motion. moreover we have efficient transmission systems. so we use every known source of energy to convert it into electricity and move it around for consumption in all kinds of ways\n\nSome day, if somebody discovers a very efficient way of transmitting and utilizing heat energy (though improbable, not impossible), we might have cross country heat lines instead of electric ones.
411815
No.If there was we would use nuclear energy.It is not and never was a workable energy source because of the hazards and waste.
358277
they may, but it would only be a small fraction of what the USA, the country opposing it, has. They are using the uranium to help there lives, electricity is so important to everyone, we take it for granted.
333263
There just isn't enough oil in US arctic waters to make much more than a blip. If we enlarge drilling operations, we have two options: A small, negligible but steady supply, or a big, short-term operation that would also make a negligible difference.\nThe big issue is that it’s mostly low-grade crude, and any economic benefit is probably offset by the twin bugaboos of the additional refining costs, as well as the inevitable environmental cleanup.\n\nIf we assume Americans start using less gas—which is darn unlikely—then gas prices go up as oil and gas producers adjust to preserve their profits.\n\nAmerica, however, is about to become a bit player in all this. China will, within 10 or 15 years, out-consume America for oil, and there are NO efficiency measures on the horizon there, primarily because the demand is for industrial processes, not cars. If America slows the rate of increase in consumption, it will just mean that the global rate increases slightly less quickly. Bottom line: Nothing America does is going to have much of an impact on demand or supply.
235856
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/geothermal/glossary.html#g\n\nGeothermal\nOf or relating to the Earth's interior heat.\n\nGeothermal Energy\nThe Earth's interior heat made available to man by extracting it from hot water or rocks.\n\nGeothermal Gradient\nThe rate of temperature increase in the Earth as a function of depth. Temperature increases an average of 1° Fahrenheit for every 75 feet in descent.\n\nGeothermal Heat Pumps\nDevices that take advantage of the relatively constant temperature of the Earth's interior, using it as a source and sink of heat for both heating and cooling. When cooling, heat is extracted from the space and dissipated into the Earth; when heating, heat is extracted from the Earth and pumped into the space.
1016150
At that depth the temperature is likely to be close to the annual average temperature. Your idea is excellent and is commonly applied commercially in the form of geoexchange pumps. \n\nOne reason this works, besides the fact that shallow ground is going to be near annual average temperature, is that there is an observed delay in the change of ground temperature at some shallow depth that will be about 6 months out of phase with the surface temperature. So in the summer when you need it most, there will be a cooler zone in the ground beneath you that is still affected by last winter's cooling. \n\nThe SMU Geothermal Lab has a lot of data relative to geothermal gradient. However, geothermal gradient is the 'rate of change' in temperature and not the actual temperature data, so I went through their spreadsheet data and tried to find a well temperature that would be relevant to you. Few wells have temperature readings taken at such a shallow depth as 60 meters. Here is their site, which you may find interesting:\nhttp://www.smu.edu/geothermal/\n\nWhat you are really interested in is called a geothermal heat pump. Here is a page with links to lots of information on geothermal heat pumps:\nhttp://www.smu.edu/geothermal/GPW_TX/GPW_TX_HeatPumps.htm\n\nTake a look at some of this information:\nhttp://www.geoexchange.org/publications/factsheets.htm\nGeothermal heat pumps have been found to be one of the most efficient methods for heating and cooling buildings, with an average of 36% more efficiency for heating and 43% more efficiency in cooling that gas heat pumps. There are over a million installations of geoexchange pumps in the US at present. Here is a diagram that shows how it works for cooling:\nhttp://www.geoexchange.org/images/Home%20GX%20smmr.jpg\n\nHere is another good writeup by an engineer on geoexchange:\nhttp://www.greenbuilder.com/sourcebook/groundsource/\n\nHere is the EPA's site on geoexchange:\nhttp://www.epa.gov/globalwarming/greenhouse/greenhouse9/comfort.html
413981
My last geology lessons (1983) suggested nuclear decay as the source for the heat.  The sheer weight of a column of 'earth' adds heat by compression.
1026300
Not sure how they compare but here is a guide about geothermal specifically for NY!\nhttp://www.nyserda.org/programs/geothermal/geothermal_manual.pdf\n\nI'm working on the same problem for Orlando\nhttp://hurricaneharbordreamhome.blogspot.com/\n\nAs for solar, you may want to start with using it for you hot water.  A typical house uses 70gals of hot water per day.  This would be    the cheapest system to start with.\n\nAfter that you may want to keep an eye on the recent solar->electric panels from a new Nano tech company.  They use a special printer to print the cells rather than using expensive silicon.
75
California electricity is generated by several sources, including hydroelectric, wind, geothermal and nuclear (in addition to the more traditional natural gas).  The question is why these other sources aren't used more, and the answer is that historically, they've either been more expensive or have environmental risks of their own (esp. for nuclear).  As petroleum and natural gas sources start to get used up, and world demand for energy increases, the cost of electricity from natural gas will go up and the other sources will become more cost effective and more prevalent.\nIncidentally, solar power is another source used in California, but it's provided by individuals, not power companies.  If your house has solar power and you have the right equipment, you can sell your surplus electricity to the power company and your electric meter will literally run backward.
310959
Solar energy is horribly inefficient, it only converts appx 3-4% of the energy available it, it costs a fortune to. i would suggest using a different form of renewable source. use solar energy to heat you water (very simple non-electrical system - black hose-piping within a black box - supprisingly effective for what you may thtink it is, this also saves money on electricity. \n\nYou could convert your central heating to a heat engine system (loads of info online about it) - expensive outlay but unlike solar cells very efficient with it.\n\nother than that common household electrical requirements nowadays are sickening and really need the national grid juice to power it. If you have a river/stream by your house tha can easily be harnessed to power all your lights, refridgerator and basic amenities ... - however how many ppl actually have a stream... LUCKY BAS***D'S!\n\nGood luck with What ever you do, any one cutting down their fuel useage is good!!!
497410
The best energy source depends on what you want and which factors you consider important.\n\nMost people would want something that is clean, safe and reliable as well as cost effective (with predictable pricing as well).\n\nNuclear Fission meets those requirements better than anything else in most cases.  When used with centrifugal enrichement it produces less CO2 than anything else, has a much better safety record than most of the competition (way better than hydro, fossil fuels and wind) and can provides power when it is needed instead of when the wind is blowing or the sun is up and is cheap enough to compete with pretty much everything even with all the environmental costs included in the price.\n\nIt also has the advantage of being doable with todays technology and infrastructure.  Should someone figure out how to store the energy from solar and wind on a large scale or we develop the capablity of putting solar power plants in orbit (which I think we should do) or get fusion to work (yeah right) then it would probably change.
514573
Geothermal energy\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_energy\n\nlook at this link\n\nGeothermal power is generated by mining the earth's heat. In areas with high temperature ground water at shallow depths, wells are drilled into natural fractures in basement rock or into permeable sedimentary rocks. Hot water or steam flows up through the wells either by pumping or through boiling (flashing) flow. Experiments are in progress to determine if a fourth method, deep wells into "hot dry rocks", can be economically used to heat water pumped down from the surface. A hot dry rock project in the United Kingdom was abandoned after it was pronounced economically unviable in 1989. HDR programs are currently being developed in Australia, France, Switzerland and Germany. Magma (molten rock) resources offer extremely high-temperature geothermal opportunities, but existing technology does not allow recovery of heat from these resources.
404282
Geothermal power is the use of geothermal heat for electricity generation. It is often referred to as a form of renewable energy, but because the heat at any location can eventually be depleted it technically may not be strictly renewable. Geothermal comes from the Greek words geo, meaning earth, and therme, meaning heat. Geothermal literally means earth heat.\n\nGeothermal power is generated by mining the earth's heat. In areas with high temperature ground water at shallow depths, wells are drilled into natural fractures in basement rock or into permeable sedimentary rocks. Hot water or steam flows up through the wells either by pumping or through boiling (flashing) flow. Experiments are in progress to determine if a fourth method, deep wells into "hot dry rocks", can be economically used to heat water pumped down from the surface. A hot dry rock project in the United Kingdom was abandoned after it was pronounced economically unviable in 1989. HDR programs are currently being developed in Australia, France, Switzerland and Germany. Magma (molten rock) resources offer extremely high-temperature geothermal opportunities, but existing technology does not allow recovery of heat from these resources.\n\n\nElectrical generation\nGeothermal-generated electricity was first produced at Larderello, Italy, in 1904. Since then, the use of geothermal energy for electricity has grown worldwide to about 8,000 megawatts of which the United States produces 2,700 megawatts.\n\nThree types of power plants are used to generate power from geothermal energy: Dry steam, flash and binary. Dry steam plants take steam out of fractures in the ground and use it to directly drive a turbine that spins a generator. Flash plants take hot water, usually at temperatures over 200C, out of the ground, and allow it to boil in steam separators and then run the steam through a turbine. In binary plants, the hot water flows through heat exchangers, boiling an organic fluid that spins the turbine. The condensed steam and remaining geothermal fluid from all three types of plants are injected back into the hot rock to pick up more heat. This is why geothermal energy is viewed as sustainable. The heat of the earth is so vast that there is no way to remove more than a small fraction even if most of the world's energy needs came from geothermal.\n\nThe largest dry steam field in the world is The Geysers, about 90 miles (145 km) north of San Francisco began in 1960 which has 1360 MW of installed capacity and produces about 1000 MW net. Calpine Corporation now owns 19 of the 21 plants in The Geysers and is currently the United States' largest producer of renewable geothermal energy. The other two plants are owned jointly by the Northern California Power Agency and Santa Clara Electric. Since the activities of one geothermal plant affects those nearby, the consolidation plant ownership at The Geysers has been beneficial because the plants operate cooperatively instead of in their own short-term interest. The Geysers is now recharged by injecting treated sewage effluent from the City of Santa Rosa and the Lake County sewage treatment plant. This sewage effluent used to be dumped into rivers and streams and is now piped to the geothermal field where it replenishes the steam produced for power generation.\n\nAnother major geothermal area is located in south central California, on the southeast side of the Salton Sea, near the cities of Niland and Calipatria, CA. As of 2001, there were 15 geothermal plants producing electricity in the area. CalEnergy owns about half of them and the rest are owned by various companies. Combined the plants produce about 570 megawatts.\n\nThe Basin and Range geologic province in Nevada, southeastern Oregon, southwestern Idaho, Arizona and eastern Utah is now an area of rapid geothermal development. Several small power plants were built during the late 1980s during times of high power prices. Rising energy costs have spurred n