The role of Geothermal Power in the Global Transition to Renewable Energy
The way of human’s life since the past needs to count on the energy. They use the power surrounding them in living. The evolution of power using grows up with the knowledge of technological science. Humans have started to develop science, materials, tools and machines in order to gain more convenience because they started to realize that the energy from fossil fuel is running out, and also not enough for humans’ consumption due to the overpopulation. Therefore, they decided to use the variety of energy for global development. There are two mains energy in our world as follow. First is unrenewable energy or fossil energy because of the accumulation of organic matter in the primeval time for over 100 million years and it becomes a petroleum, natural gas and coals. All of these cannot reuse and it will run out eventually. Second is renewable energy. It is the power from nature which can reuse such as solar power, wind power, bio fuels, and geothermal power. In the present, renewable energy is the crucial necessary because it can reuse and give the power same as fossil fuels. One of interesting renewable energy from human is geothermal power. Geothermal power plays a significant role in the Global Transition to renewable energy nowadays because its power output and payments are powerful and cheap compared to other sources, moreover geothermal power tends to be the most popular in the future according to technological development. Therefore, geothermal power is regarded as renewable energy from human. There are many details about geothermal power such as its development, location, payments and output production as following.
Geothermal energy is one of renewable energy which is playing an important role in the global transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy because of many reasons such as power output and clean energy. The world is changing, many factors have more important for human particularly energy because of they want to get more convenience. For example, they need to use the electric energy in the night life and need to use the heat in cooking as well. In the past, human has made power from coal and fossil which are non-renewable resources and also affect to the earth in the bad way (Energy.gov, 2015). Luckily, according to the current technology is developing, it makes the occurrence of alternative energy including Fossil fuels, Geothermal, Solar power and Wind power. For instance, we can transform the power from using wind, sunlight or water. All of these occurred from the nature, that is to say, it is renewable and clean energy. In each type of renewable energy is completely difference such as the source of power and power output. For example, the solar power produces the electricity and it can be used when we have the light while the wind power also produces the electricity and it is not rely on the light, but using the wind instead. Bio Fuels is unique because it produces the fuel power such as alcohol and methanol, but this paper will not mention about it due to its production is not related to other sources’ production. Nevertheless, the most attractive is geothermal. Geothermal energy is different from other renewable energy because it made from the hot water from the earth’s underground. To put in another way, geothermal power can be utilized all the time and not rely on the sunlight or the wind. Therefore, geothermal power has the high potential than other renewable energies including fossil fuels, moreover it has the process of changing from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
Geothermal energy did not play a role much in the past because of many reasons. Firstly, it has a very high cost. In ancient time, many countries encountered with the high energy prices of geothermal such as Denmark and Germany due to the growing interest in controversial alternatives (The Economist, 2014). So, it is hard to make a transition of geothermal from one country to another country. At that moment, other renewable resources have more popular than geothermal (Figure 1). For instance, solar power is the most popular because the innovation of solar power has rapidly developed by supporting the payment from the government. Moreover, wind power is also popular due to it is the cheapest renewable energy sources in that time (Ammonit.com, 2015). Secondly, geothermal technology was not developed yet. According to the past decades, geothermal did not play a role much, so the scientists did not concentrate to improve this renewable resource. It was also did not get any supporting from the government. For this reason, it makes geothermal costs are very high. Furthermore, with the technology has not yet developed, the production is not effective as it should be (Figure2). This graph shows that the power production of geothermal energy in the past is very low because of two main reasons that mentioned earlier. Geothermal energy was rarely used in the past when we compared with other renewable sources. Thus, the cost and the technology can directly affect to the role of geothermal in the global transition.
Currently, many plans of geothermal installation can be placed in many regions in the world because of discovery is developing as well as the technological development which also makes the payment cheaper. Geothermal industry is a stable place because of it can install only once for everlasting using without changing the location. As the discovery is developing, geothermal plants can transfer from one country to other countries and have many industries (Figure 3).
Figure 3 shows the location of geothermal plant which has expanded from one country to many areas in the world. That is to say, currently, in many countries pay attention to geothermal power more than the past.
With the geothermal plant has installed in many areas, the technology is developing. These make human interested in geothermal power because of its power output was higher than the past and higher than other renewable energies at the same time (Figure4). For instance, in New Zealand geothermal power obviously generate the electricity higher than wind power (Figure5).
At the beginning of the 20th century, geothermal cost falls at a faster rate than another because many researchers have seriously focused on development due to geothermal power can give them more powerful than other renewable energy at the same period (Figure6).
At the present, the time scale of geothermal plant is just the beginning from the technological development while other renewable energy has moved on. Although, geothermal plant has been used for a long time, the technology is continually growing; therefore it will take time around 50 years for the brilliant transition. We need to enhance the technology such as tools, materials and machines so as to gain the efficient power and reduce the cost as much as possible. Hence, geothermal power plays a greater role more than the past for many reasons and it also expands the location from one country to another country.
Geothermal energy is likely to play a significant role in the future because of it provides too much effective electricity which gives the power same as fossil fuels as well as tends to be the cheap renewable energy. The enormous manufactory requires much energy for using which is solar power and wind power cannot furnish them sufficiently while geothermal plants can exceedingly release the power that enough for them. Although, coal and fossil can provide many powers, geothermal energy also supplies continually and provides the base load energy which no effect to the earth such as the pollution unlike fossil fuels. In the future, geothermal energy will be one of parts in moving the regions of our world (Union of Concerned