Process of Harvesting Geothermal Energy
- Hot rocks underground heat the water to produce steam.
- We drill holes down to the hot region, steam comes up, is purified and used to drive turbines, which drive electric generators.
- There may be natural "groundwater" in the hot rocks anyway, or we may need to drill more holes and pump water down to them.
- 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.
- The steam may be used to drive a turbogenerator, or passed through a heat exchanger to heat water to warm houses. A town in Iceland is heated this way.
- The steam must be purified before it is used to drive a turbine, or the turbine blades will get "furred up" like your kettle and be ruined.
Geothermal Power Plant
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