The Meaning of Geothermal Energy & Is Geothermal Power Worth the Effort?

Amongst the debates over alternative fuel sources many of the more conventional forms of renewable energy tend to be the focus of conversations. There is a large surge of investment around solar fuels, bioethanol and biodiesel pretty much allow for the same vehicle model, and wind power is commonly associated with “green energy.” One of the more confounding, somewhat because of its intimidating title, is geothermal energy.

Geothermal energy simply means energy that comes from deep within the earth and oceans. Geothermal systems collect and store this heat energy so it can be used at a later time. This power was first developed over a century ago, yet today still powers less than a single percentage of the planet’s total energy. Over recent developments it can be seen that there is little cost in implementation of this technology, mainly because it is not affected by outside climate factors like solar or wind and it has little fuel cost itself. These machines can continuously generate power without any need to cease production.

The problems with geothermal energy are legitimate, and possibly the reason that it has not been in use yet. The plants themselves are often large, and require displacing much of the local life where it is built. In this way it acts as a large scale industrial development in relatively rural lands. At the same time it tends to have some emissions of harmful gasses because of its production of water steam, but this is twenty times less than that of any fossil fuel. On top of this it is likely that some of these “hot spots” could lower in temperature and then produce much less power than originally intended.

Right now the U.S. leads the way in geothermal energy, and several South American countries are trying to jump in as well. California has pushed itself as one of the leading states in alternative energy, and it has done the same by building more than a dozen geothermal plants. Now there are more being built at a rapid rate throughout the south western area of the country.

Now the question really arises: is geothermal worth it? Since we are already serious about using environmentally friendly energy sources it is important to wonder why there would be support of any that have even small environmental problems. Geothermal has proved itself to be worthy replacement to some of the more conventional methods, but it should not be on the top of the list. Its use should be used in combination to force us quickly off of all fossil fuels, but once we have done this we may be overrun with overdeveloped power plants. The best way to approach this is to use only barren locations where there has already been widespread development, possibly in agricultural zones. This way we can avoid expansive development and destruction of eco-systems that occur when large operations are stamped into remote areas.