I wanted to dedicate this entire article to this wonderful ancient technology and how it is being redesigned to benefit modern society. It is an incredibly efficient method for heating water and your entire household. It is infinitely renewable because 4,000 miles below ground in the Earths core; temperatures reach over 9,000 degrees F. radiating towards the surface. Geothermal energy can be obtained from almost anywhere on Earth. With a geothermal source springing from a single well drilled only a few miles deep, an entire suburban neighborhood could heat their water and homes year-round, vastly reducing carbon-burning energy costs.
Geothermal is by no means a new technology. Native Americans started using geothermal waters from natural hot-springs 10,000 years ago for cooking and medicine. Romans used it to treat eye and skin diseases, and worshipped hot-springs (Roman bathhouses) for their purifying and healing powers. Also, Roman engineers developed the earliest geothermal plumbing systems to bring the cleansing springs to their homes! Over half of the population of Iceland enjoys low-cost hot water and energy from the geothermal infrastructure in their capital city of Reykjavik, and they have since 1930. Since the 1960s, France has also used geothermal to heat over 200,000 homes.
Electricity ~ the most successful alternative energy project in the world started in the 1960s about 90 miles north of San Francisco at a Geyser fueled power plant. Some Geysers also release toxic, but valuable natural gases that can be collected to produce other alternative fuels.
Heating/Cooling ~ Geothermal Pumps use water and a network of coiled underground tubing to transfer the Earth’s hot or cold energy into your home or business.
Gardening ~ that’s right! Many of today’s orchards depend on gas- or oil-burning heaters to keep the ground from freezing for longer periods of the year in order to extend growing seasons. Buried pipes circulating geothermal-heated water would be a brilliant green alternative!
Public Safety?!? ~ Klamath Falls, Oregon in 1981 built a geothermal district heating system that quickly grew into the worlds largest. As well as heating many residential homes and public service facilities, these Oregonians have ingeniously adapted their geothermal network to also keep sidewalks and roads from icing over.
