Geothermal Power

Heat is a form of energy, and geothermal energy is energy derived from the heat contained within the earth. Volcanoes, hot springs and other thermal phenomena are examples of geothermal activity. In fact, the thermal energy of the earth is immense, but only a fraction can be utilised by man. So far our utilisation of this energy has been limited to areas in which geological conditions permit a carrier (water in the liquid phase or steam) to transfer the heat from deep hot zones to or near the surface, thus giving rise to geothermal resources.

Known usable geothermal resource areas are rare, and at below 8,000 MW, the world's installed geothermal capacity is still limited. Leaders in geothermal electricity generation are the US (2,200 MW), the Philippines (1,900 MW), Mexico (750 MW), Indonesia (590 MW) and Japan (550 MW). But geothermal energy has many other uses. The most common non-electric use world-wide (in terms of installed capacity) is heat pumps (35%), followed by bathing (26%), space heating (22%), greenhouses (8%), aquaculture (4%), and industrial processes (3%).