Essay On Geothermal Energy

841 Words2 Pages

Geothermal energy is the heat that lies within the earth. This heat energy is obtained from hot rocks present inside the earth. The world ‘geothermal’ comes from the Greek works ‘geo’ refers to earth and ‘thermal’ refers to heat. This renewable energy source keeps produces heat inside the earth which makes it exhaustible to the mankind. Almost 4,000 miles beneath the earth’s surface, this phenomenon known as geothermal energy gets generated deep inside the earth’s core. The outer core is made up of very hot magma or melted rock surrounding a solid iron center which is the inner core. Slow decay of radioactive particles continuously produces very high temperatures inside the earth; this process is natural in all rocks. Surrounding the outer core is the mantle, about 1,800 miles thick; it is made of magma and rock. The outermost layer of the earth is the crust. It forms the continents and ocean flows running to 3 to 5 miles thick under the oceans and 15 to 30 miles thick.
The earth crust is broken into several pieces called plates. Magma comes close to the earth’s surface near the edges of these plates. The lava that drops from the volcano is partly magma. Deep underground, the rocks and water absorb the heat from this magma. The temperature of the underground rocks and water increases with increasing depth. People around the world use this underground energy to heat their homes and to produce electricity by digging deep wells and pumping the hot underground water or steam to the surface. Since ancient times, geothermal energy has been used for heating and bathing. Even today hot springs are used worldwide for bathing. Using geothermal energy to produce electricity is the relatively new industry which came into existence 1904. The I...

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...have to transport fuel like most power plants. Geothermal power plants have been built in deserts and in mountain and forests. Not all areas are suitable for production of electricity with the help of geothermal energy and it also depends on the structure of rocks. The generation of geothermal energy creates noise pollution and releases noxious smells. Even though operating costs are low, cost of setting up a geothermal plant is very high also it’s expensive to drill holes so deep in the earth.
In same places such as Iceland, hot water comes naturally to the surface as steam, which can drive turbines to generate electricity, Some power stations make use of lava that flows from the volcanos. Despite of few disadvantages, it is an undeniable fact that geothermal energy is an extremely valuable, simple and clean source of energy that can benefit mankind in a big way.

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