Environmental Impact of Geothermal Energy

Strong and weak aspects one can identify when studying various issues. Let's summarize impacts of geothermal energy. In this shot we will write about impact on environment, the next one will be focused on human health impact.

The linguistic origin says that „Geothermal“ represents the heat coming from Earth's depths („Geo“ like Earth, „thermal“ like heat). It means that this source of energy is natural and this heat is primary one. In comparison for example with fossil fuels, there are no additional steps or „mid-steps“ required in order to make and obtain heat. In previous article we wrote that according various estimations, Earth accumulates heat that would be enough to satisfy global energy demand for more than 10 billion years (see this link). In addition, this heat is accumulated either by adsorbing sunshine through surface or by happening specific chemical and physical reactions in Earth's solid iron core. Dangerous products of these reactions (UV radiation, dangerous gases, nuclear elements etc.) remains either in space, outside the ozone layer of Earth's atmosphere, or enough deep in proximity of Earth's core, which means deeper than magma. Therefore creating of this heat doesn't represent relevant danger, no question about it.

There are just three main objections towards geothermal energy:

Drilling issue is comparable with mining issue in matter of obtaining power sources for coal or nuclear power plants. On the other hand, geothermal wells do not require such a long diameter than mining s ahaft or the colliery. It is true that geothermal wells could be deeper than mining shafts, but altogether they require less capacity of soil to be removed.

Cooling the Earth is being mentioned as the second objection. Yes, if we exploit more heat than is capable to be renewed, by time the geothermal well produces ever colder water stream and becomes comercially uneffective. This can be resolved by better customizing EGS approach (more about EGS on this link).

Water issue becomes step by step of an ever higher political priority. Climate change means also the change of global water regime. On the other hand, operating geothermal wells is managed like closed water loop, so there can be no question about wasting the water sources.

In conclusion, environmental impact of geothermal energy depends on how it is being exploited and which approach is taken. But geothermal plants in general does not burn fossil fuels or coal in order to produce electricity. In comparison with „traditional“ power plant, it produces just 1 percent of CO2 emission in contrast with incineration of fossils. In addition, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) adds regarding geothermal heating systems (secondary utilization of geothermal power) that geothermal heat pumps are the most energy-efficient, environmentally clean, and cost-effective systems for temperature control. Altogether, geothermal energy represents clean modern solution for growing energy demand as well as for steps against climate change.

Thermodynamic cycles in geothermal energy

How geothermal heat is transformed in order to be used in turbines producing electricity? Thanks to “thermodynamic cycles”. They are the set of various thermodynamic processes, which are based on the “law of conservation of energy”. It tells us that energy is isolated system and its amount remains constant; energy cannot be created or destroyed, just turned from one type into another. In other words, geothermal heat, thanks to thermodynamic cycles, can be turned into other types of energy used in steam turbines. Have a brief look on it:

Thermodynamic cycle is about turning heat into work (we mean physical term of „work“) under concrete pressure, temperature and other physical factors. In ideal case, transforming heat into work as well as work into heat, can be described like zero sum game. So, if there would not had been any losses (it means ideal case), the whole amount of energy in form of geothermal heat would have been transformed into the same amount of work and later on electricity. In reality, effectiveness varies regarding the concrete type of used thermodynamic cycle.

On field of geothermal energy, there are used several types of thermodynamic cycles - e.g. Kalina cycle, Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) and other - or their combinations. The use of concrete type of cycle depends on quality of reservoir, the pressure, water temperature and many other factors. As we mentioned above, every transformation of one type of energy into another is accompanied with losses. In this regard, optimization of geothermal energy production process is necessary in order to minimize those losses.

Optimization means the most appropriate combination of thermodynamic cycles and the most appropriate setting of other physical parameters. If you are interested in the most used thermodynamic cycles in geothermal energy, next articles on this blog will be dedicated to this topic. We will also bring concrete case studies – description of some geothermal wells and facilities in Europe.

What steps can individuals, businesses or world leaders take to address the most pressing and often interrelated water and energy challenges?

To answer this question it is necessary to look at the sources which we walk on. From the volume perspective, only 1 % of the Earth is colder than 1000°C and 0.1 % is colder than 100°C. This amount of energy is available continuously 24/7 without any carbon dioxide or other pollution and practically not exhaustible. Heat under the Earth’s surface is still permanently produced in the Earth’s volume by decay of uranium, thorium, etc. For effective geothermal electricity production, there is a need to drill between 8-10 km in hard rock, where the temperatures almost anywhere in the world exceed 300°C, optimal for steam turbines and high enthalpy heat production. 

Research and development in emerging drilling technologies is aimed on effective deep drilling in hard rocks with the price linear with the depth, which is significant advancement in drilling technology. This enables to exploit geothermal energy practically anywhere in the world independent of the local geological situation. The most promising solutions are drilling systems based on thermal treatment on rocks. These systems provide cost effective and high speed drilling optimized for the hard rock environment. The technologies are oriented towards creation of power generation units ranging between 20 MW to 30 MW per unit, where drilling costs are expected to be less than $1M per drilled km. The main aim of the technology is to bring the position of the geothermal energy  in the world energy mix to its real potential as base load energy and real alternative to coal, oil & gas and nuclear, by RADICAL change through cost effective deep drilling.

Change of the strategy and paradigm of energy production: 

• Substantial contribution of geothermal energy to climate change mitigations. Energy distributed production to geographic localities where energy is needed and not where resources are available. It provides minimum transport losses in contrast to present day grids, high security against the collapse of energy systems and security against terrorist attacks.
• Affordability for developing nations, because the source of the energy the “fuel” is available anywhere. 
• Small footprint of geothermal energy production sites not harming the country environment in contrast to wind farms and photovoltaic large area fields.
• Safety of the processes compared to nuclear energy.

 
The emerging drilling systems are enabling technologies for future development of strategically important application areas as follows:

• Accessing new reservoirs of oil and gas - In recent decades new deep underground reservoirs that require significant advance in drilling technologies were discovered. One of the main innovations of emerging drilling systems based on thermal approach is the ability to produce continuous casing while drilling. Casing is created synchronously with the drilling process immediately in the drilling bit zone ensuring sealing and mechanical stability of the well all the time also in difficult conditions. This is a key factor in onshore, but even more considerable in offshore drilling with game-changing cost reduction. Moreover it reduces need for Shale Gas extraction and other methods with negative environmental impact. 
• Deep hidden water reservoirs and possible desalination on continents - Water wells in regions with limited access to drinking water but with rich sources of deep water reservoirs. Another utilization are geothermal wells for power generation aimed at desalination. Main targets areas are Africa, West and central Asia and Australia.
• Centers of prosperity - Geothermal heat cascade exploitation economy around each geothermal power generation complex, creation of new jobs and local autonomous economies. The cascade consists of hydrogen production, electricity production, lumber drying, direct building heating and cooling, biotechnology reactors, greenhouses, aquaculture, fisheries, wellness, geothermal heat pumps, etc. For development of such prosperity centers, the franchising concept could be applied. 

We believe that to address water and energy challenges it is necessary “to support development of emerging drilling technologies which will provide sustainable and safe energy for the future.”

From geothermal history: „Hot Dry Rock“ inspired also Mr. Nikola Tesla

Phenomenon of geothermal energy is not the discovery of our generation. At the very beginning of it, in 1852, Lord Kelvin focused his attention on natural heat as an enormous source of power at disposal for human being. On the other hand, knowledge on field of physics had been not enough developed in order to find ways how to exploit geothermal potential or potential of other sources of natural heat. Later, better understanding of thermo-dynamics came, so heat accumulated in Earth could had been started to be explored step by step.

„It is a well-known fact that the interior portions of the globe are very hot, the temperature rising, as observations show, with the approach to the center at the rate of approximately 1° C. for every hundred feet of depth,“ concluded Mr. Nikola Tesla in 1901 on the pages of Century Illustrated Magazine. His article, published at that time, was focused on thinking about various answers to issue of growing global energy demand. Among the solutions also the Sun's heat was mentioned (full article you will find on this link).

Thirty years later, in 1931, Mr. Nikola Tesla stated: „All that is necessary to open up unlimited resources of power throughout the world is to find some economic and speedy way of sinking deep shafts." This is quote from „Everyday Science and Mechanics“, in which he analyzed the possibility of using alternative sources of energy for producing electricity, beside the fossil fuels (full article you will find on this link). Once the shaft would had been filled by water, closed water loop could be established, thought Mr. Tesla. This could have been utilized for generating of steam, which would have been used in steam turbines, he assumed.

Well, in conclusion, developing “Hot Dry Rock” concept is not about „investing the wheel“, it has been known at least since the times of Nikola Tesla. On the other hand, for 80 years since that time geothermal energy technologies made some progress, but the technology enabling „economic and speedy way of sinking deep shaft“ (to depths of eight or more kilometers) is still waiting to be developed. It would mean a huge potential as well as a huge challenge.

Focused closely on „Hot Dry Rock“

All of you know that: Imagine you are on the beach during a sunny summer day. No clouds, no wind, just sun. Suddenly you decide to walk without shoes on your feet. Possible? Impossible because rocky road is too hot for your skin on feet. Actually, the rock can be good absorbent of enormous heat and it can deliver it quite quickly to all things in close contact with it.

Quality of rock is the same on Earth's surface as well as underground. This principle uses geothermal approach called „Hot Dry Rock“. If there are no natural hot water streams or natural hot water reservoirs, we can establish closed water loop and inject it down the well under high pressure. This water is warmed by „hot dry rock“ underground. In other words, in each area under the Earth's surface there is geological layer composed of rock. It is close to hot magma and it is of a very hot temperature. If we drill enough deep and make water to circulate through rock pores, after it is heated we can pump it above and use it as a source of energy in geothermal power plant. In order to bring rock permeability as close to ideal as possible, we can fracture this rock manually, through controlled detonation. Altogether, this process uses so called Enhanced Geothermal Systems.

There are more types of geothermal classification. One of them defines so called „hydrothermal“ and „petrothermal“ types of energy. „Hydro“ means that we drill and exploit presence of natural hot water. On the other hand,  „petro“ refers to drilling in order to establish closed water loop circulating through „hot dry rock“. Surely, in each area there are some natural underground water sources and at the same time, not all water injected down the well is able to be pumped back, so „petrothermal“ represents just ideal concept. In reality, all geothermal energy installations are combination between hydrothermal and petrothermal (based more or less on concrete type). But in general, „Hot Dry Rock“ is usually linked to „petrothermal“.

Well, this was just a brief explanation of what „Hot Dry Rock“ means. All is sketched on picture by civil engineer Mr. Geoff Sims on picture at the bottom. We also reccommend 10 minutes video explanation below:

Kalina Cycle

The next one among geothermal cycles is called "Kalina Cycle". It has been given name by its inventor, Russian engineer Alexander Kalina. Beside Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC), Kalina Cycle is another cycle used in power facilities fueled by geothermal water streams of lower temperature.

In comparison with Organic Rankine Cycle, the main advantage of Kalina Cycle lies in higher thermodynamic efficiency. In addition, there is also so called "New Kalina Cycle" that can be characterized as one producing less emissions and requiring less energy while being used. There are various variations of Kalina Cycle, each one suitable for concrete mixture of geothermal water properties - working fluid.

Similarly to Organic Rankine Cycle, Kalina Cycle uses a working fluid comprised of at least two different components - typically water and ammonia. Unlike Organic Rankine Cycle, condensation of ammonia-water mixture typically permits additional heat recovery, so this fluid of much lower temperature can be repeatedly used in order to produce additional energy. Surely, the amount of additional energy is quite low and depends on the concrete ratio of water and other items included in working fluid.

Kalina Cycle trademark and patents are owned by Global Geothermal Ltd.

Organic Rankine Cycle – ORC

Like we mentioned that the principle of geothermal power plant lies in thermodynamic cycles, we would like to write briefly about one of them, so called Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC).

Firstly, what is a Rankine Cycle? In general, it is a thermodynamic cycle used in turbines in order to produce electricity. It is one of practical approaches to Carnot Cycle, which refers to ideal type of turning heat into work without any energy losses. Rankine Cycle is used in steam turbines exploiting so called waste heat. In other words, once the “primary” heat is used for some purpose and the part of it was consumed, the waste heat can be a source of energy for Rankine Cycle.

“Organic” means using high molecular mass fluid, which has lower boiling point than water. Very simplified, geothermal water stream heats closed high molecular mass fluid loop, turned into steam and fueling steam turbine. In practice, ORC uses chemical fluid consisting of butane, propane, ammonia or some of new environmental friendly refrigerants. The main advantage of refrigerant is that it boils at a temperature below the temperature of frozen ice. Moreover, additional heating, although by low temperature geothermal stream, increases the pressure in closed loop.

Organic Ranking Cycle is therefore suitable to be used in geothermal power plants established on wells producing water streams of lower temperature, which means especially the range from 50 to some 100 Celsius degrees, or in combination with other thermodynamic cycles producing the waste heat. On the other hand, the efficiency of ORC is low in general.

Summary in video: How geothermal energy works?

We browsed Internet and tried to find as simple as possible and the most illustrative video explaining the principles of geothermal energy. After hours of searching, we would like to recommend one created by UCTV.

Right below your feet is a source of renewable energy that is largely untapped. It heats groundwater by conduction and convection as it travels toward the surface of the earth - explain Lawrence Livermore National Lab scientists Carol Bruton and John Ziagos.

This video affirms that it is good to know science, because science touches everyone's life. Geothermal power lies beneath our feet, so we should learn about its potential, says video.

Instructive video-spot explains issue of geothermal energy in 6 steps:

• What is geothermal energy?
• Where does it come from?
• How it is used?
• Geothermal energy in U.S. and California.
• Environmental benefits.
• The future of geothermal energy.

Well, we hope you will enjoy it... (if yes, let us know in discussion linked to this article)

Health Impact of Geothermal Energy

Imagine the geothermal power plant. As long as you look at it, you will see some type of „smoke“ rising up from strange wide „chimney“. Is this real smoke? Is that real chimney? No. Right answer is that just the water steam is rising up from the cooling tower, not from chimney. Therefore the question is: Is this steam harmful for human health or is it not? In other words, does geothermal energy hurt human health?

That water steam, leaked through cooling tower, is just the small part of water steam released from steam turbine and delivered to tower in order to be cooled and liquefied, then used again for producing the steam fueling the turbine. Just the clear water, without any toxic or harmful substances.

For your better imagination, how geothermal power plant works, we recommend this short video created by CalEnergy:

Let's look at the health impact of geothermal facilities closer. In an simplified way, all factors can be derived from principle described above. No smoke means no need to burn fossil or other type of fuel, which means production of no emissions, toxic or harmful substances. If we talk about power plants in general, we can identify four main types of emissions:

• NOx emissions, especially Nitrogen Oxide (NO) – responsible for lung irritation, coughing, smog formation as well as for water quality deterioration.
• Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) – causing wheezing, chest tightness, respiratory illness as well as various ecosystem damages, especially acid rains.
• Carbon Dioxide (CO2) – the reason of global warming and its impact like rising the sea level, increasing the risk of damaging floods, prolonging dry seasons and accelerating glacial melting.
• Particulate Matter (PM) – causing asthma, bronchitis, cancer, atmospheric deposition as well as visibility impairment.

One case study, comparing the coal and geothermal power plant, revealed this conclusion: Coal plant updated with scrubbers and other emissions control technologies emits 24 times more carbon dioxide, 10,837 times more sulfur dioxide, and 3,865 times more nitrous oxides per megawatt hour than a geothermal steam plant.

In conclusion, geothermal power plant produces no Nitrogen Oxides as well as no Particulate Matter. In matter of Sulfur Dioxides, directly it does not emit them, but once hydrogen sulfide is released as a gas into the atmosphere, it eventually turns into sulfur dioxide and sulfuric acid. On the other hand, amount of hydrogen sulfide produced by geothermal facility ranges from 0 to 0.35 lb/MWh (in case of coal plant 10.39 lb/MWh). In addition, CO2 production is also very low: from 0 to 88.8 lb/MWh, in comparison with coal facility on level of 2,191 lb/MWh. If CO2 is produced, it is just the secondary impact linked to operational issues of geothermal complex.

As the numbers prove, geothermal power is clean source of energy in fact, producing almost none of dangerous emissions with negative impact on human health.

Enhanced Geothermal Systems - EGS

EGS stands for Enhanced Geothermal Systems, sometimes called Engineered Geothermal Systems as well. This title represents the scale of a new type of geothermal technologies, enabling to exploit geothermal potential in areas without underground natural hot water streams or natural hot water reservoirs.  In other words, if natural conditions do not allow to use hot water streams in economic viable way, EGS technology brings solution by pumping cold water down the well, under high pressure, in order to be warmed in rock pores underground and after it delivered above the surface, all in closed loop. Therefore we call this procedure “Hot Dry Rock” (HDR).

Efficiency and viability depends on depth of well. As we wrote in previous article, in fact, geothermal wells nowadays are rarely deeper than 3 kilometers. It is caused by the costs of ultra deep drilling. Just for information, drilling into 5-10 km represents tens of million dollars in general.

Exploiting geothermal energy via EGS/HDR can be established anywhere on the Earth, but  always regarding to financial limits of drill depth. In areas where there are present so called tectonic plate boundaries - in areas where magma and its heat come together closer to Earth's surface, using EGS becomes cheaper. On the other hand, if distance between surface and magma is longer, drilling effective wells becomes more and more expensive.

Under various estimations, if EGS should be competitive to other renewable energy sources really anywhere, it needs huge R&D (research and development) progress. Experts say that in next 15 years, there need to be 1 billion USD invested into geothermal EGS research in order to be able to install 100 GW of electricity only in United States by 2050.

Nowadays, EGS and HDR technologies are being tested in axis France – Switzerland – Germany as well as in the middle of Australia, in Japan and in the West side of United States (notice: in next articles we will try to show some concrete examples of EGS installation in Europe via case studies from Germany and France).

Enhanced Geothermal Systems and Hot Dry Rock technologies offer unique opportunity to find new energy solutions. Information technology giant Google also considers this huge opportunity. The reason according to Google.org is very simple and clear: „EGS is a utility-scale, base-load, and renewable energy source that could produce electricity cheaper than coal. Since EGS builds the geothermal reservoir by design, EGS projects can be made large enough to produce as much power as a typical natural gas or coal power plant (500 - 1,000 MW). Everywhere on Earth, the deeper you go, the hotter it gets, meaning EGS can be developed in many areas across the world. EGS is a base-load resource, meaning it can run 24 hours a day regardless of weather.“ Therefore also the leading web search engine decided to invest into EGS research heavily as well as to inform public with creation of US geothermal potential digital map for Google Earth's users.

Huge and still not fully exploited geothermal potential

Energy under our feet, geothermal power, represents de facto unlimited clean, stable and reliable source of energy. Geothermal power can be the best answer and energy solution nowadays, but its bulky potential remains almost unused.

According to various scientific estimations, Earth accumulates 10E31 Joules of energy ("E" represents "mathematical exponent"). It would be enough to satisfy global energy demand for more than 10 billion years. That being said, Earth is about 6E24 kg. The specific heat of silica & iron (the two most common minerals) is .7 & .45 J/gk - average it to .55. That would mean 3E24 J for a 1 degree drop. 3600J is a watt-hour... so 2.1E19 J is a terawatt-year. That means it would take about 140,000 years of 1TW 'drain' to cool the entire (interior of) Earth about 1 degree. Even assuming that all human electricity was generated via geothermal energy, it would take somewhere in range of millions of years. This is enormous „heat of impact and compression released during the original formation of the Earth“, stemming from specific chemical and nuclear reactions in the center of the Earth, as well as from solar heat adsorbed by Earth surface. 

Geothermal heat hidden underground is geological phenomena on a planetary scale, which means it is located under the whole surface, but in various depths. In practice, a few or more kilometers under the ground, there is very hot area, just at our disposal and ready to become effective and clean source of thermal energy. As picture on the left side shows, the principle of getting it up, above the surface, is very simple: We need to find geological anomalies, to drill some 2-5 km down, and to establish water circulation. Cold water is pumped down into reservoir and after it becomes hot it is drawn up above the Earth surface. Hot water turns into steam, which is used in steam turbines producing electric power. At the same time, hot water can find also the secondary utilization – it can be transported into other facilities like a fuel for heating systems.

Geothermal energy has attracted many countries all over the world since the Second World War. It was considered as an opportunity how to use Earth's energy for free, which does not need to be imported from anywhere abroad. On the other hand, due to technologies available at that time, it was able to exploit geothermal potential just in limited geographic areas, characterized by higher number of geological anomalies, so called tectonic plate boundaries. Also current technologies enable us to drill economic and time effective just only to three (max. five) kilometers deep, which means linking to those limited areas as well. The general potential of geothermal energy is huge, but at this time we can consume only its „low-hanging fruit“.

As was mentioned above, heat from the depth is brought on surface by water. Sometimes water circulation happens naturally, in some areas - where magma is closer to the surface - warm springs appear. If no natural water is available, one has to make reservoir and pump it manually. In general, the temperature of water depends on so called geothermal gradient. In practice, it means that in average with one kilometer of depth there is warmer space of some 25-30 Celsius degrees. Surely, this is dependent also on the geological structure, which means the proximity of tectonic plate boundaries. On the other hand, quantity and the quality of source of geothermal heat can be improved by drilling.

In fact, geothermal wells nowadays are rarely deeper than 3 kilometers. This fact limits the use and exploitation of geothermal potential just to some appropriate areas. Wells deeper than 3 kilometers become more expensive and in addition, the costs of „ultra deep drilling“ rise exponentially, not linearly. Just for imagination, drilling into 5-10 km represents tens of millions dollars in general.

Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) offer an opportunity to drill wells deeper than 3-4 kilometers. They are also called Engineered Geothermal Systems, Hot Dry Rock or Fractured Rock Geothermal Systems. Even though EGS expands the use of geothermal energy, as well as linked to the „classical“ geothermal technology it finds application just in limited geographic areas, especially in United States or Island. The world is still waiting for appropriate drilling technology, which would allow to drill ultra deeply (8 and more kilometers) and time and cost effectively. At the same time, in other words, the world is also lacking the technology that would allow bringing geothermal power really anywhere, not just to limited numbers of areas.

Imagine the solution lying just under your feet

Mankind nowadays faces the challenge of finding balance between the economic growth, finding new ways of promoting concept of energy security as well as mitigating ever deepening climate change. Finding solution reflects various factors; from the level of technological research and development, through financial resources and commercial viability, to long-term visions and goals.

Current policy making is green oriented. Low-carbon technologies as well as clean ones are the key technologies for the future, no question about it. A lot of public sources and much attention have been allocated to them. In matter of this, in an very simplified way, the public discussion is focused heavily on issue of bioenergy, renewables and some clean technologies linked to fossil sources of energy like Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) or Clean Coal Technology.

In general, one can divide energy sources into five basic categories:

• Fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, coal),
• Renewable sources of energy (wind, solar, geothermal, hydro power, etc.),
• Bioenergy (mainly biomass and biofuels),
• Nuclear Energy,
• Other novel sources (like hydrogen, etc).

What source of energy is the most appropriate solution for challenge mentioned above? The answer cannot be clear and unambiguous. Each type of source is suitable if various categories are taken into consideration.

Fossil fuels have the longest tradition, they are wide-spread and common. The majority of energy installations and devices have been designed for using them. On the other hand, it is typical for them to leave tough carbon footprint. At the same time, oil and natural gas are sources, which are located on the Earth very unequally. Practically, all strategic reserves are located in region under authority of undemocratic, unstable or even failing states. Altogether, this causes the problem for the concept of energy security itself. One can object that the reserves of coal and lignite are spaced more or less equally in all states all over the world. Yes, that is true, but incineration of coal is not just the best solution if we try to fight and mitigate climate change. There is the basic question, if coal sometime in the future could become the clean source of energy. CCS Technology is promising one, but it needs to be advanced in order to would be used commercially effective. At the same time, CCS would not remove the problem itself, it is just an approach how to tackle huge CO2 footprint.

Regarding CO2 emissions, promoting bioenergy, even though it is part of European mainstream at this time, is not just the best solution as well. It has prefix „bio-“, but „bio-“ does not necessarily mean „green“. Biofuels of first generation are not very effective in matter of agricultural fields' area requirements as well as in matter of CO2 production linked to growing technical plants on a large scale. Biomass can be cheaper and viable energy solution for single households, but its potential is much smaller if we talk about total energy consumption in general.

Nuclear power is shadowed by bad experience from the past, resistance of green activists and movements and, at the same time, by political controversy in general. Nuclear becomes the big issue in public debate again, but even if it reached broader support, it would not be about to become any dominant energy source in very short term.

Well, Renewables seem to be the most appropriate answer for challenge we face today. In practical terms, they caused no CO2 emissions in phase of energy production. Renewable energy technologies can be installed everywhere, but according to level of current technological development, the choice of concrete energy source depends on weather and geological conditions and realities of each country. For instance, states in Southern European have bigger solar potential than Austria with huge hydro power potential or Slovakia with biomass or geothermal one. Indeed, one has to think about limitations. Wind energy is usable just in windy times or during the days with windy weather. Solar is relevant only if the sun is on the sky, not during nights. Hydro power plants are not energy facilities with the highest performance.

If one still thinks that Renewables are the most appropriate energy source of the future, which type of them is the most suitable? Any renewable source would have not been a good solution, until it would provide permanent performance - 24 hours a day, 7 days per week. We are not able to make sun to shine all the day, it is not in our responsibility to ask weather to be always windy as well.

But what about the situation, if we would be able to bring geothermal power anywhere, on every side and corner on the Earth? Imagine the future, where the best energy solution would lie just under your feet. And it has been lying there since the Earth arose. That is the reality and now it is up to us to approach it reasonably and transform this knowledge into our profit.

„Geothermania“ is dedicated to technologies of the future, that would allow us to drill deeply, to come enough close to geothermal energy and Earth's potential - really ANYWHERE.