Posts Tagged ‘Geothermal energy’

Using geothermal energy for homes

Friday, July 17th, 2009

The conventional as well as non conventional sources of energy are used at homes for purposes like cooking, bathing and keeping homes warm. But the use of the traditional sources of energy like coal and wood for heating homes present a few problems. These problems are generally related to environmental pollution and rising costs of the fossil fuels used. We, therefore, need to use an alternative energy source like solar energy, wind energy or geothermal energy for heating homes.

The use of geothermal energy resources for heating homes is becoming more and more popular because it is easy and economical to use and maintain. For heating homes, geothermal energy can be configured in a very easy manner. A loop of pipes is put below the earth’s surface where they get in contact with the high temperatures inside the earth’s crust. The high temperature heats the water that is released through pipes. This heated water in the form of a geothermal energy resource called steam is returned back to the homes through a heat pump. This energy can be used for purposes like the generation electricity, powering a water heater or keeping the homes warm.

The use of geothermal energy resources for keeping homes warm is a viable option because it reduces the dependence on fossil fuels. The installation of a geothermal system that can heat homes is easy. In addition, geothermal energy as a renewable energy source will always be available for use as opposed to fossil fuels that will soon come to an end.

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Alternative Power Companies Revolutionizing Geothermal Energy

Thursday, May 21st, 2009

Alternative Power Companies That Show Promise

Ormat Technologies is one of the alternative power companies that are revolutionizing the field of geothermal energy. Though partially owned by American business interests, 60 percent of it is owned by an Israeli holding company called Ormat Industries. It is the leading geothermal alternative power companies primarily in places like California and Nevada where geothermal resources are high. They are set to expand their capacity by two-thirds in the next two years.

Furthermore, California Alternative Power Companies added 500 megawatts of green power in 2008 – a 60% increase. The most difficult challenges lie not in the generation of the power, but rather the power transmission. This aspect will be have to be handled federally, which appears to be happening as the current administration is responsible for a total budget of $18.73 billion for the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), 11 times more than the funding from 2008.

This huge influx of money bodes well for First Solar. This alternative power company trades on Nasdaq as FSLR, Energy Conversion Devices, which trades on Nasdaq as ENER, and FPL Group, which trades on NYSE as FPL. FPL group is a utility with big plans for solar and renewable energy. These alternative power companies, though beset by periodic setbacks in the current unstable economy, are poised to continue growing and generating profits.

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Alternative Energy Sources Innovation

Monday, May 18th, 2009

Alternative energy sources must be extracted and exploited in order to curb greenhouse gas emissions. These processes of extraction and exploitation, however, must be subject to intense and constant innovation and technological progress to ensure maximum efficiency and efficacy.

For example, geothermal energy is an important resource in volcanically active places such as Iceland and New Zealand. Its importance is increasing in the United States, although it only makes up 3 percent of the nation’s alternative energy sources. The process is that vaporized water is emitted from the earth and cranks a turbine. Water is pumped down an “injection well”, filters through the cracks in the rocks in the hot region, and comes back up the “recovery well” under pressure. It “flashes” into steam when it reaches the surface.

However, Raser Technologies and the United Technologies Corporation revolutionized the technology behind geothermal power with its PureCycle225 power plant at Chena Hot Springs, built originally in 2003. The power plant’s modular design exponentially increases building times. Because of the use of a specific liquid known as R-134a, it can also use cooler water, which increases the number of potential sites and expands the geographic possibilities outside just countries like Iceland or New Zealand that have extremely active geothermal conditions.

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Africa’s Move toward Alternative Energy

Thursday, April 30th, 2009

Oil and gas deposits in Algeria are finite. The scorching sun is not. Even though the North African nation gets 95% of its export earnings from oil, it decided to exploit the one alternative energy resource they knew they would have indefinitely, a resource that could power the world four times over. So Algeria constructed an enormous solar facility a year ago with parabolic solar energy troughs nearly 45 football fields wide in the Sahara Desert. Not only will Algerian homes and businesses be alternative powered, but European ones as well, with the final objective to export 6,000 megawatts to Europe by 2020. That is the equivalent of 4 million homes. As the technology behind solar energy cells gets better, the facility becomes more and more productive.

Elsewhere on the continent, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, the lack of electricity is a deterrent to investors. With demand growing 8% a year, the Rift Valley, which stretches from the northern end of the Red Sea down to Mozambique in east Africa, may hold the solution hidden in the ground: geothermal Alternative Energy. An energy source that is impervious to any kind of weather and minimal carbon emissions. Perhaps most crucially, though, east Africa sorely lacks West Africa’s oil or the Sahel’s capacity for solar energy. So geothermal Alternative Energy is a very inexpensive source of energy. Hydroelectric dams currently power much of the area, but are subject to drought. The United Nations Environment Program estimates its potential yield as 14,000 megavolts, while only 200 megavolts are being currently harvested. With the right infrastructure and capital, it could provide 10-25% of the region’s energy by 2030.

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