Geothermal Energy

"If we truly want an innovative and creative renewable fuel industry, then it needs to be challenged. And if we create a set of protections that allow it to not be as creative and innovative as possible, then we aren't doing a service to the industry or to the people of this country."- Jimmy Carter, April 18th, 1977. The threat to the environment has been a persisting issue for more than just a few years. Yet, only now is when the public has been made aware of the certain "complication". Luckily, we have had a certain amount of new "alternative energy resources" been introduced to us. These new energy sources range from using almost all natural resources as suppliers. Some are quite complex while others just needed a little brainpower. One quite complex energy source is one of geothermal energy. Harnessing geothermal energy is an art in itself. It is the process of capturing the Earth's internal heat in the core. This and many other energy sources are being implemented today to build a better tomorrow.

Origins:

As far as what is geothermal energy, it's origins date back to hundreds of thousands of years ago. The word geo is the Greek word for Earth and the word therme is the Greek word for heat. So geothermal energy is the heat energy from inside the earth. The heat from the Earth was originally used for bathing. The hot, mineral rich water was thought, and still is, to contain natural healing abilities. Much later on though, the first genuine heat pumps were being tapped and therefore gave birth to the true power of geothermal energy (Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Annual 2005).

Geothermal energy is generated in the earth's core, about 4,000 miles below the surface. Temperatures hotter than the sun's surface are continuously produced inside the earth by the slow decay of radioactive particles, a process that happens in all rocks. The earth has a number of different layers: The core itself has two layers: a solid iron core and an outer core made of very hot melted rock, called magma. The mantle, which surrounds the core, is about 1,800 miles thick. It is made up of magma and rock. The crust is the outermost layer of the earth, the land that forms the continents and ocean floors. It can be three to five miles thick under the oceans and 15 to 35 miles thick on the continents (Adapted from