Geo Thermal energy is only a small percentage of the global means of electricity generation. This is growing because of recent technological developments, such as materials technology improvements and mechanical advancement such as cross drilling etc.

The images to the left show a power plant in Iceland, where superheated water is used to power turbines and in turn produce electricity. Because the energy comes from the heat below the earth’s crust capacity can be quite high for this type of generation. Essentially 24 hour power is on tap and is not affected by tides, winds, or cloud cover. The install cost of Geo thermal is higher than other systems as it requires technical drilling and specialised equipment. Also it has limited application in as far as the thermal characteristics of the land are not universal across all areas. Currently wells are in the vicinity of 2-3 km in depth and situation near geographic areas that have a high Geo thermal flux, that is are near hot springs and the edges of tectonic plates. New approaches such as hot dry rock and deep drilling, up to 10 km) are looking promising. In hot dry rock energy production water is pumped deep into the earth and heated it is then extracted in it’s super heated form/steam to power turbine/generators.

For more information and links to manufactures, engineers, and suppliers please click here to go to the links page.

Kinetic power generation, electricity is made via mechanical action, a dynamo on a push bike powering the light or a wind up radio for example click here for more information and links.