Today, geothermal energy is one of the top subjects in world of mining and environment. It has the potential to run long term and can provide base-load energy, at the same time it helps to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions. Geothermal energy is found almost everywhere on earth, from shallow ground to hot water or hot rock, which can be found few kilometres below the surface and even deeper to magma where the temperature is extremely high. From time when geothermal energy was discovered, many technologies have been developed to understand and use geothermal energy properly. In the last 50 years global energy consumption has risen dramatically, that’s why in the next 50 years energy consumption is forecast to rise by a factor of three in parallel to a strong growth in global population from 6 to 10 billion people. While we today are using primarily energy source – coal, oil/gas, which will be depleted, renewable energy source is therefore required to maintain a future-proof, reliable and low-emissions energy supply.
It has been found that geothermal power plant does not need external fuel to operate, that’s why the price of geothermal energy does not go up like oil and gas. Beside that it is one of the cleanest, reliable and renewable energy source, which is friendly to environment, with high potential since it is underdeveloped in most countries and cheaper than other energy sources.
In my thesis I will describe geothermal energy, where can we found it, how to use it, disadvantage and advantage, impact to environment, differences from oil or gas energy sources from economic point of view and the main challenges regarding well construction.
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