Abundant Geothermal Energy
Assessing the potential of a neglected energy source.
Kevin Bullis 01/22/2007
- 2 Comments
Concerns about global warming and volatile energy prices have researchers and policymakers dusting off projects from earlier energy crises to find ways to produce abundant clean energy. Now a comprehensive report concludes that drilling wells to harvest heat deep underground--a project first financed by the government in the 1970s and 1980s--could meet ten percent of the United States' current massive energy needs in less than fifty years, and provide much more than that in the future. But it will take sustained investment to make this happen.
Technology Review talked to one of the leaders of the report last summer about the potential of geothermal energy. (See Abundant Power from Universal Geothermal Energy .) The new 400-page report, along with an executive summary, can be found here .
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cdenver
3 Comments
Distributed Geothermal for heating and Cooling Homes
Geothermal energy is available just six feet below the earth surface. At this depth, the temperature range between 50F to 60F during all four seasons of the year. Vertical ground loops and horizontal ground loops can make excellent heat source and heat sinks for air source heat pump. However, research is needed to adapt the ground loops thermally to the existing air-source heat pumps. Often during the winter heating season, heat pumps struggle to gather heat from 20F outside air and deliver it to the interior of the house at 70F. During the summer heating season, the heat pumps struggle to maintain the interior at 75F by removing heat from the house to a 90F outside source.
Up to a 50% savings on heating and cooling cost can be achieved, by using ground loops to extract (source) heat from the earth and to reject (sink) heat to the earth.
You can read more about the benefits and cost justification of Ground Source Heat pumps (GSHP) by visiting my website
http://sites.google.com/site/cdlovettdocuments/home/document-list-2/geothermal-summary
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