Introduction
Historical energy demand has grown exponentially over the past century. Generation sources parallel population growth and technological advances. While there is an increasing rate of penetration renewable power generation, the majority of energy is still being generated from fossil fuels. Another challenge is that the majority of renewable power generation is from Solar and Wind, with a generation time profile that rarely matches the demand profile. Most steady-state power sources are either Nuclear or based on Fossil-Fuels. However, there is one major source of energy which is a renewable and steady, Geothermal Energy.
The Earth was formed approximately 4.5 Billion years ago. Residual heat from its formation, along with heat from naturally occurring radioactive isotopes, provides a source of abundant renewable energy. Geothermal energy is one of the oldest sources of energy. Archaeologists have discovered evidence of human use of Geothermal heat from Geysers as for back as 10,000 years ago in North America, followed by several examples of Greeks and Romans using geothermal heating.
The earth is estimated to produce
Geothermal power started receiving increasing attention as far back as 1900, when Nikola Tesla [1] was looking for more natural resources to power his electric inventions. In 1904, Prince Trevignano of Italy created the world's first Geothermal Power Generator in Larderello, Italy [2] which powered a few lightbulbs. And the first commercial Geothermal Power Plant was commissioned in Larderello, Italy in 1913, which produced 250 kilowatts (kW).
Since the first commercial Geothermal power plant 1913, there has been a steady increase in the development and utilization of Geothermal Energy. As of 2015, the International Geothermal Association reported that the world was generating over 12 GigaWatts equivalant (GWe) from Geothermal Power Plants. The following visuals [3][4] provide some perspective on the distribution and trending of Geothermal Power. Notably, Geothermal power generation more than doubled from 1990 to 2015, with the United States generating more than a quarter of Worldwide Geothermal Power.
Graph: Sources of Electricity Generation by Year (EIA).
Geothermal Power
Geothermal Heating and Cooling
Underground Storage
Technology Frontiers
Enhanced Geothermal Systems
References
[1] Tesla, N., "The Problem of Increasing Human Energy", Century Illustrated Magazine, June 1900. {#ref1}
[2] Tiwari, G. N.; Ghosal, M. K. Renewable Energy Resources: Basic Principles and Applications. Alpha Science Int'l Ltd., 2005
[3] Source: Ruggero Bertani, Geothermal Power Generation in the World, 2010-2014 Update
[5] Fridleifsson, Ingvar B.; Bertani, Ruggero; Huenges, Ernst; Lund, John W.; Ragnarsson, Arni; Rybach, Ladislaus (11 February 2008). O. Hohmeyer and T. Trittin (ed.). The possible role and contribution of geothermal energy to the mitigation of climate change(PDF). IPCC Scoping Meeting on Renewable Energy Sources. Luebeck, Germany. pp. 59–80. Retrieved 27 August 2022.