Geothermal Energy

Authors: Relly Victoria V. Petrescu and Florian Ion T. Petrescu Geothermal power requires no fuel (except for pumps), and is therefore immune to fuel cost fluctuations.

Florian Ion Tiberiu Petrescu

Bucharest Polytechnic University,Guest Posting Romania

E-mail: [email protected]

Relly Victoria Virgil Petrescu

Bucharest Polytechnic University, Romania

E-mail: [email protected]

ABSTRACT

Geothermal energy is heat energy generated and stored in the Earth. Thermal energy is the energy that determines the temperature of matter. The geothermal energy of the Earth’s crust originates from the original formation of the planet and from radioactive decay of materials (in currently uncertain but possibly roughly equal proportions). The geothermal gradient, which is the difference in temperature between the core of the planet and its surface, drives a continuous conduction of thermal energy in the form of heat from the core to the surface.

Keywords: New energy, Renewable energy, Sustainable energy, Geothermal energy

INTRODUCTION

Geothermal energy is heat energy generated and stored in the Earth. Thermal energy is the energy that determines the temperature of matter. The geothermal energy of the Earth’s crust originates from the original formation of the planet and from radioactive decay of materials (in currently uncertain but possibly roughly equal proportions). The geothermal gradient, which is the difference in temperature between the core of the planet and its surface, drives a continuous conduction of thermal energy in the form of heat from the core to the surface. The adjective geothermal originates from the Greek roots γη (ge), meaning earth, and θερμος (thermos), meaning hot.

Earth’s internal heat is thermal energy generated from radioactive decay and continual heat loss from Earth’s formation. Temperatures at the core–mantle boundary may reach over 4000 °C (7,200 °F). The high temperature and pressure in Earth’s interior cause some rock to melt and solid mantle to behave plastically, resulting in portions of the mantle convecting upward since it is lighter than the surrounding rock. Rock and water are heated in the crust, sometimes up to 370 °C (700 °F).

From hot springs, geothermal energy has been used for bathing since Paleolithic times and for space heating since ancient Roman times, but it is now better known for electricity generation. Worldwide, 11,700 megawatts (MW) of geothermal power is online in 2013. An additional 28 gigawatts of direct geothermal heating capacity is installed for district heating, space heating, spas, industrial processes, desalination and agricultural applications as of 2010.

Geothermal power is cost-effective, reliable, sustainable, and environmentally friendly, but has historically been limited to areas near tectonic plate boundaries. Recent technological advances have dramatically expanded the range and size of viable resources, especially for applications such as home heating, opening a potential for widespread exploitation. Geothermal wells release greenhouse gases trapped deep within the earth, but these emissions are much lower per energy unit than those of fossil fuels.

The Earth’s geothermal resources are theoretically more than adequate to supply humanity’s energy needs, but only a very small fraction may be profitably exploited. Drilling and exploration for deep resources are very expensive. Forecasts for the future of geothermal power depend on assumptions about technology, energy prices, subsidies, plate boundary movement and interest rates. Pilot programs like EWEB’s customer opt in Green Power Program show that customers would be willing to pay a little more for a renewable energy source like geothermal. But as a result of government assisted research and industry experience, the cost of generating geothermal power has decreased by 25% over the past two decades. In 2001, geothermal energy costs between two and ten US cents per kWh.

Matherials and Methods

Hot springs have been used for bathing at least since Paleolithic times. The oldest known spa is a stone pool on China’s Lisan mountain built in the Qin Dynasty in the 3rd century BC, at the same site where the Huaqing Chi palace was later built. In the first century AD, Romans conquered Aquae Sulis, now Bath, Somerset, England, and used the hot springs there to feed public baths and underfloor heating. The admission fees for these baths probably represent the first commercial use of geothermal power. The world’s oldest geothermal district heating system in Chaudes-Aigues, France, has been operating since the 14th century. The earliest industrial exploitation began in 1827 with the use of geyser steam to extract boric acid from volcanic mud in Larderello, Italy.

In 1892, America’s first district heating system in Boise, Idaho was powered directly by geothermal energy and was copied in Klamath Falls, Oregon in 1900. The first known building in the world to utilize geothermal energy as its primary heat source was the Hot Lake Hotel in Union County, Oregon, whose construction was completed in 1907. A deep geothermal well was used to heat greenhouses in Boise in 1926, and geysers were used to heat greenhouses in Iceland and Tuscany at about the same time. Charlie Lieb developed the first downhole heat exchanger in 1930 to heat his house. Steam and hot water from geysers began heating homes in Iceland starting in 1943.

In the 20th century, demand for electricity led to the consideration of geothermal power as a generating source. Prince Piero Ginori Conti tested the first geothermal power generator on 4 July 1904, at the same Larderello dry steam field where geothermal acid extraction began. It successfully lit four light bulbs. Later, in 1911, the world’s first commercial geothermal power plant was built there. It was the world’s only industrial producer of geothermal electricity until New Zealand built a plant in 1958. In 2012, it produced some 594 megawatts.

Lord Kelvin invented the heat pump in 1852, and Heinrich Zoelly had patented the idea of using it to draw heat from the ground in 1912. But it was not until the late 1940s that the geothermal heat pump was successfully implemented. The earliest one was probably Robert C. Webber’s home-made 2.2 kW direct-exchange system, but sources disagree as to the exact timeline of his invention. J. Donald Kroeker designed the first commercial geothermal heat pump to heat the Commonwealth Building (Portland, Oregon) and demonstrated it in 1946. Professor Carl Nielsen of Ohio State University built the first residential open loop version in his home in 1948. The technology became popular in Sweden as a result of the 1973 oil crisis and has been growing slowly in worldwide acceptance since then. The 1979 development of polybutylene pipe greatly augmented the heat pump’s economic viability.

In 1960, Pacific Gas and Electric began operation of the first successful geothermal electric power plant in the United States at The Geysers in California. The original turbine lasted for more than 30 years and produced 11 MW net power.

The binary cycle power plant was first demonstrated in 1967 in the USSR and later introduced to the US in 1981. This technology allows the generation of electricity from much lower temperature resources than previously. In 2006, a binary cycle plant in Chena Hot Springs, Alaska, came online, producing electricity from a record low fluid temperature of 57 °C (135 °F).

The International Geothermal Association (IGA) has reported that 10,715 megawatts (MW) of geothermal power in 24 countries is online, which was expected to generate 67,246 GWh of electricity in 2010. This represents a 20% increase in online capacity since 2005. IGA projects growth to 18,500 MW by 2015, due to the projects presently under consideration, often in areas previously assumed to have little exploitable resources.

In 2010, the United States led the world in geothermal electricity production with 3,086 MW of installed capacity from 77 power plants. The largest group of geothermal power plants in the world is located at The Geysers, a geothermal field in California. The Philippines is the second highest producer, with 1,904 MW of capacity online. Geothermal power makes up approximately 27% of Philippine electricity generation.

In 2016, Indonesia set in third with 1,647 MW online behind USA at 3,450 MW and the Philippines at 1,870 MW, but Indonesia will become second due to an additional online 130 MW at the end of 2016 and 255 MW in 2017. Indonesia’s 28,994 MW is the largest geothermal reserves in the world, and it is predicted to overtake the USA in the next decade.

Results and Discussion

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Feng Shui in the modern-day global – Does It work?

while you think about Feng Shui courting again over 3000 years you need to surprise if it nevertheless works or can something that antique be powerful in nowadays technically advanced society. maybe it is just a little too vintage style and desires to go the manner of the spinning wheel or the windmill. in the end, the whole lot outlives its usefulness and is replaced by some thing higher, right? possibly the important thing to this question is maintaining in thoughts that Feng Shui isn’t a chunk of technology however a technological know-how and a philosophy. Feng Shui does no longer grow out of date like a system but remains regular like gravity or the rotation of the planets around the sun. Feng Shui survives the take a look at of time due to the fact it’s miles a primary truth not an evolving era. The things that men invent come to be out of date; the simple principals of the universe continue to be intact and consistent. this is the essence of the toughness of Feng Shui. it’s based totally on unchanging regularly occurring principals.So what principals are we talking about, and why are there so many exclusive colleges or strategies of Feng Shui if it is a frequent steady? The distinctive disciplines of Feng Shui all have the equal commonplace denominators and that is what makes all of them work. Drawing the “bagua” as a square or a hexagon would not in reality trade the philosophy underlying the bagua regions and their relationship to each other. whether or not you create your Bagua Map with a compass or a reference point would not exchange the principles of “aim and stability”. To understand Feng Shui and to use it efficiently you must recognize the basics similarly to the person traditions or displays. it’s miles stated that a professional practitioner could make any of the disciplines paintings, and this is the important thing to understanding the character of Feng Shui.So does Feng Shui work? Did it ever work? Will it always paintings in the destiny? Why does not everybody accept it if it is so exact, and why after 3000 years is it nevertheless a enormously unused philosophy? those are desirable questions. My short solution is “simple human nature”. There isn’t always anything on this international of a philosophic nature it is universally regular. all of the excellent religions, all of the exceptional sorts of recovery arts, all of the colleges of philosophy, are at satisfactory partly customary at any time, in any location. Feng Shui is a piece to a far larger image, an critical and beneficial piece, but nonetheless just a bit. It have to be applied within its scope and no longer devour or replace any other factors of our life. The very nature of Feng Shui is stability and harmony and Feng Shui itself must be used in stability without becoming an obsession.So does it work? Does it work for every person the identical way to the equal degree? And if it does how will you prove it? The answers I ought to those questions is; “I do not know.” the way you prove the electricity of Feng Shui is a touch beyond me. It falls into the class of working on faith in preference to quantifiable measurable consequences. we will see the results and theorize approximately the manner but proving them like you do the law of gravity is hard, perhaps not possible. there has been a traditional movie made inside the 1947 referred to as “Miracle on thirty fourth road” with Maureen O’Hara, in which a courtroom of regulation attempts to show if a man claiming to be Santa Claus clearly become. The movie of route became merely amusement however the portrayal of proving one of these factor one way or any other may supply us a few insight to our question handy of proving or disproving if Feng Shui is actual.i would like to use a quote that is credited to Henry Ford who stated, “if you believe you could, or you can’t, your proper”. if you have no longer heard that announcing before read it more than one times till the message sinks in. This subject matter has been expressed a number of distinctive approaches through a number of exceptional human beings through the a while. perception is strongly related to faith and our capacity to imagine the matters we want. Imagining is made viable by way of our capacity to suppose and think rationally. we can consider all types of new and tremendous matters and thereby set the innovative technique into motion in order to appear something that we will trust in. Feng Shui did no longer invent this foremost it truely organizes it into a procedure that we will use to apply it. Does all and sundry consider in this major, No! Does every one consider in Feng Shui, No! Does all of us have the religion that Feng Shui works and therefore the capacity to use its strategies and enjoy its outcomes? unfortunately the solution again is, “No”. some will, some may not, so what. a part of being a human being is having a free will and what we consider or not is an man or woman privilege, and we’re all exclusive.Does Feng Shui paintings within the modern-day international, i will say yes. i will qualify this with the aid of announcing it will paintings for all and sundry that believes it will paintings and has the religion to apply its strategies and the gratitude to credit score its outcomes. Feng Shui isn’t time dependent. It does not feature in another way within the modern-day world than it did inside the ancient global. The electricity at the back of Feng Shui is the same nowadays as it was the day gone by and was on the time of advent. So whether we draw the Bagua Map internal a container, or internal some different shape, there are nevertheless nine lifestyles-occasion classes that we need to stability and are looking for concord with. If our intentions are strong and our perception is superb we can initiate the innovative system with a view to supply what we want and Feng Shui can assist us with that effort.Is Feng Shui to your future? http://www.hypertracker.com/cross/mariesfengshui/ezart

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