Geothermal Energy-Is it costly?

Geothermal Energy is the energy obtained from the heat stored in the deep layers of earth’s crust. It is a renewable energy and does not produce any harmful effluents as in the case of other fossil fuels. Its abundance and reliability make it more considerable for future power production. We can group the utility of geothermal energy into three- power production, ground source heat pump and use of derived heat.

The basic principle involved in tapping geothermal energy is that the heat from the deeper layers of the earth’s crust is brought to the surface layers by conduction of heat. The major resources of geothermal energy are the hot water springs found on the surface, the deeper rock surfaces and also the deeper molten magma.

We can classify the power production using geothermal energy into dry steam technology, flash steam technology and binary cycle system depending upon the medium used to transfer energy namely, dry steam hot water and geothermal fluid respectively.

Economically, geothermal energy has two phases, phase one involves the installation of the power plant, wherein as in the case of other renewable resources’ power plant the cost is quite high. This cost is due to the following factors:

1. Cost of land- large area of land is required for erecting various power production equipments, and also for drilling the land so as to reach the deeper layers to conduct the heat present there.

2. Cost of drilling- the land has to be drilled to a depth of at least 100 feet. It is done as that done in the petroleum pumps, because the basically the aim is to drill deep holes in earth.

3. Installation of machinery- various machinery, like driller, large pipes carrying the medium like steam or water , and other machines have to be installed for power production.

4. Cost of operation- these are the daily expenses. Operation involves the daily running of the machines, payment for workers, cost of inputs, etc,.The cost of electricity required to generate geothermal power is lesser compared to that of others like hydro electricity.

5. Cost of maintenance- every machine has a wear and tear and has got to be maintained for long periods. This does proves to take up a small percentage of the cost of production.
It is seen that the cost of production of power using coal is only US$ 0.02, but there is a large amount spent on the measures to minimise the pollution effects it causes, this expenditure brings the total cost of power to around US$ 2. This is very high as compared to geothermal energy.
The initial cost for the installation appears to be high in the case of geothermic power, but when compared to the charges of per capita power production using coal US$ 2, it is very less and rounds up to only $0.03 USD. It is seen that extra research to treat the effluents or to reduce pollution etc, are not required when we use geothermal energy. Also the long term uses are many such as- low to no effluent production, uses local energy so that import of raw material of any kind is not required, and also it is greenhouse friendly.