Geothermal energy has been used for centuries and is a renewable energy source. It can be used for direct use, geothermal power plants, or heat pumps. While it has advantages and disadvantages, combining energy sources is likely the best solution.
The use of geothermal energy, harnessing the natural geothermal energy in the Earth, has been part of human existence for centuries, with documented examples of the use of geothermal energy dating back to Greek and Roman times and observed in ancient China and in Egypt. There are several ways this energy can be used and it attracted great interest from alternative energy advocates in the early 21st century as people and governments sought renewable energy sources.
The most common use of geothermal energy is direct use, where heated water and steam from inside the Earth is used for heating, cooking and bathing. Direct use is also the oldest use; the Greeks and Romans, for example, used geothermal springs for bathing and also attached beliefs about healing powers to deposits of naturally heated water. This use can be seen in over 70 countries around the world and is especially common in geologically active regions such as Iceland where there is ample availability of geothermal energy.
Another form of using geothermal energy can be found in geothermal power plants, which use geothermal energy to generate electricity. The advantage of such facilities is that they can generate energy in a remote location and transfer it elsewhere, allowing people in regions with no geothermal energy sources to enjoy geothermal energy. The efficiency rates of geothermal power plants can be very high, depending on the technology they use, how well they are maintained and where the energy is sent to.
There is an additional option for using geothermal energy known as a heat pump. With a heat pump, geothermal energy is used to push heat into buildings in the winter and to extract heat from buildings in the summer. This technique allows climate control to be achieved, often at very low cost. It relies on the Earth’s natural heat near the surface and does not require access to deep geothermal deposits. This use of geothermal energy can be known as geothermal so that people do not confuse it with the deep deposits of geothermal energy used in geothermal power plants and direct use systems.
This type of alternative energy has both advantages and disadvantages, such as any type of energy used by people to heat, power vehicles, cook, generate electricity and perform other activities. Many alternative energy advocates have suggested that the solution to energy problems probably lies somewhere happy in between, with people combining energy sources and technologies to meet their needs, rather than relying on a single technology.
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