Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice older book in good condition. Pages in excellent condition. No notes or highlighting. No dustcover otherwise very good condition. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> THE GEOTHERMAL ENERGY stored within the interior of the earth amounts to a vast quantity which if fully exploited could supply the energy needs of man for millennia. If one considers the United States for example and includes only those geothermal resources with temperatures greater than 150?C (300?F) it has been estimated that about 450 million kilowatts (kW) could be generated. This is only slightly less than the total installed electric generating capacity of the country from all energy sources [EPRI 1977]. The main difficulty in putting this enormous energy resource to use lies in its diffuse nature. Over the course of a year about 4X10″ kilojoules (kJ) or 100 billion megawatt-hours of heat energy is conducted to the sur- face from the interior of the earth [Bowen and Groh 1977]. This is about twenty times the electric energy used by the entire world. The rest of this chapter will present a short description of the various types of geothermal energy resources a historical account of geothermal energy usage a survey of geothermal energy conversion technology along with a clarification of terms used to characterize the operations and relia- bility of central power stations and finally a summary of current geo- thermal power plants and those planned for the near future. (SP)