What is Geothermal Energy

The phrase "geothermal energy" has been around forearth, is geothermal energy. Many scientists disagree
hundreds of years. The term "geothermal" deriveswith this, as geothermal energy should be used to
from the Greek words; geo (meaning earth), anddescribe the heat energy dispersed by the earth's
therme (meaning heat). This instantly gives us the quickcore.
definition, "geothermal energy is heat from the earth".The variant of geothermal energy which comes from
A common misunderstanding of geothermal energythe sun, should really be described as a ground heat
lies in the source of this heat. The two sources whichsource, due to the fact that solar energy is only able to
heat our earth are the earth's core, and the sun.heat the edge of our earth's crust, before the sun
The earth's core is predicted to be between 3000 andgoes down and the heat is lost.
4000 degrees Celsius, and this heat warms the earthOver recent years, companies who used to promote
right up to the land beneath our feet, decreasing in"geothermal boilers" are now switching to the use of
temperature all the way.the term "ground source heat pumps", as a ground
The suns surface is approximately 5600 degreessource heat pump uses the suns energy, not the heat
Celsius. The heat from the sun only warms the firstenergy from the earth's core.
few meters of our earth, and then this heat is lostThe correct process of geothermal energy extraction
during the night.is associated with geothermal power plants. This
So where does the misconception concerningextraction is only made possible by drilling very deep
geothermal energy actually come from? Well, manyholes into the earth, so they can reach a substantial
people believe that the fairly modern method oflevel of geothermal energy to heat water and extract
heating water by laying pipes under around 1 meter ofsteam to drive turbines.