Your Questions About Geothermal Energy Disadvantages

adminsta answers:

Search geothermal iceland…apparently it’s so cheap they heat the sidewalks…

adminsta answers:

The main disadvantage is that you have to have a geothermal source that is appropriately located. Other forms of power generation permit you to locate a power generating plant close to population centers, power transmission hubs and corridors. With geothermal your options are severely limited as to site selection.

It is a practical reality that it is extremely difficult to get local, state and federal permission to run new power lines into previously undeveloped areas. Once you’ve gotten past the various official obstacles you will have to run a gauntlet of environmental lawsuits. It is far easier to site a new power plant near an old one that has the necessary distribution elements already in place, this is generally not an option for geothermal energy.

adminsta answers:

Advantages:

(1) Very clean, as in zero pollution

(2) Very efficient (for instance, “The Geysers” facility in N. California produces 75%+ of a modern nuclear plant, and isn’t even tapped-out yet)

(3) It’s essentially invisible

(4) There is almost nowhere in America that doesn’t have geothermal potential sufficient to tap and produce useful energy (goes for most of Europe as well)

(5) Doesn’t matter if it’s warm, cold, wet, or dry weather/climate

(6) 100% sustainable

(7) Sometimes side benefits such as accepting “gray” waste-water from neighboring communities and injecting it it into the well, where it becomes additional fluid, and also disposes of and 100% cleans the waste-water.

Disadvantages:

(1) The very old facilities literally capped geysers for energy, which means that they weren’t available and pretty to look at anymore. However, no body uses those techniques any longer, because we can do it much more efficiently now through different methods. Essentially, there are no downsides.

adminsta answers:

Shallow geothermal resources aren’t available everywhere and the drilling technology to reach deeper hot rocks isn’t advanced enough to make it cost effective in many regions yet. Geothermal heat pumps are the best bet for most places at the moment.

adminsta answers:

Advantages:
Geothermal power is cost effective, reliable, sustainable, and environmentally friendly, but has historically been limited to areas near tectonic plate boundaries.

Disadvantages:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_energy#Environmental_impact

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_energy_in_the_United_States#Environmental_Risk

adminsta answers:

Advantages:
low cost to maintain.
Relatively clean energy
low or no emissions of carbon dioxide, methane or carbon monoxide or ozone.

Disadvantages:
high emission of water vapour, a potent green house gas.
Expensive to build
danger of larva flow.
Hard to find places where the geothermal energy can be exploited.