Geothermal energy is a gift from the mother Earth

At the current rate of energy consumptionMany people have long been concerned about the finite nature of the resources used, in particular oil and gas. And this makes us think about the use of other, non-traditional sources of energy. As one of such sources, according to the plans of scientists, geothermal energy can act.

Essentially, it is the energy thatregion in the depths of the earth. According to research of scientists, there is a temperature gradient of 20-30 ° C per kilometer inland. At a depth of 10 km relative to the surface, the temperature can reach very high values ​​(up to 300 ° C). This internal temperature allows obtaining geothermal energy sources.

In some cases, they are visible and operate withoutany additional effort. Just enough to remember the valley of geysers in Kamchatka, or many other areas where geysers and hot springs are beating from the ground. This geothermal energy can not be used simply so that it can be used, it is necessary to build some machines that can catch this energy, and it will turn into something more usual for us, the same electricity.

To date, there are two ways to implement geothermal energy:

- Direct use of heat;

-Electricity generation.

Unfortunately, direct use of heatit is possible only in certain places, for example, in Iceland and Japan. In this way, either hot water from sources is used to heat rooms, or to install heat exchangers, often directly in mines.

To generate electricity, special geothermal power plants have to be built. In this case, geothermal energy is also used in several ways:

-In the case of direct dry steam,It is obtained from mines leading to heated areas in the depths of the earth. In these mines, the water is pumped in, it heats up and turns into steam. This dry steam enters the turbine blades, which drives the generator armature, resulting in the latter producing an electric current;

- heated water is used, it is under pressurecomes from the depth to the evaporator, where the pressure drops sharply, the water evaporates, and the resulting steam enters the turbine blades, which directly turns the generator armature;

- the so-called "binary" method is used. In this case, the geothermal energy heats the water. This water enters the heat exchanger, where, thanks to heat exchange, another carrier with a lower vaporization temperature is heated than water. The resulting steam enters the turbine, and it drives the anchor of the generator generating the current.

In all these cases, the water remaining after the evaporation processes can be used to heat the premises.

In such ways geothermal energy can be used for economic needs.

It should be noted that the first geothermal stationwas built in Italy in 1904, it still works today. There are many other similar geothermal power plants, in California, about 5% of the electricity comes from geothermal power plants, they work in El Salvador and Iceland.

The reserves of geothermal energy are trulyinexhaustible and many times greater than the available reserves of fossil fuels. For geothermal stations, the disadvantage is that they can be located in places where there are hot springs. However, stations have already been developed and tested that allow obtaining geothermal energy in any place.

Thus, the above information allows us to consider geothermal energy as one of the possible options for providing energy for the depletion of fossil resources.