Enhanced Geothermal Systems Hold the Most Potential of All

Interpretation 

The enhanced geothermal system applies improved technology to create geothermal energy without the need for relying on natural convective. Until the development of this technology, geothermal power systems have focused on generating power by exploiting naturally occurring heat, rock permeability and water in an attempt of allowing the extraction of energy. Enhanced energy technologies create geothermal energy even from dry rocks increasing the supply of power. 

Analysis 

Enhanced geothermal systems have the potential for increasing the rate of energy supply compared to other forms of geothermal energy. The existing geothermal systems provide power by focusing on natural resources such as heat, water, and rock permeability to supply geothermal electricity indicating that there is inadequate tapping of potential resources in tapping geothermal sources of power (Xu et al., 2015). Seismically active hotspots are not the only locations where geothermal energy can be found. However, it is possible to find a steady supply of milder heat even in areas that are 10 to few feet below the earth’s surface. There are also potential sources of heat from rocks that are found very deep below the earth’s surface. In an attempt of achieving full economic potential, enhanced geothermal systems become the solution for tapping the untapped resources for geothermal electricity. For example, U.s national Renewable Energy Laboratory realized that untapped geothermal resources would be able to produce 38,000 MW of power annually. 

Enhanced geothermal systems emphasize on using dry rock as the raw material for producing energy which has never been used by any other sources of power in the geothermal systems. The hot, dry rock reservoirs that exist in regions that are significantly below depth makes dry rock heat system to be efficient in producing heat (Fridleifsson et al., 2016). For example, there is an estimation that hot, dry rocks resources have the capability of producing 4 million MW source of electricity which represents more than U.S electricity demands (Menberg et al., 2016). Enhanced electricity production provides a base load electricity which provides a comparison between the actual power produced and the potential output of the plants if they were running nonstop over the period. 

As enhanced geothermal systems technologies continue to improve and become more competitive by tapping untapped resources, they also have a significant impact on the level of environmental impact that geothermal sources of power cause to the environment (Lu, (2018). From this view, enhanced geothermal systems are environmentally viable because improved technologies help in reducing the effects of electricity production on the environment. The objective of setting the renewable sources of energy is to minimize the impact that non-renewable such as fossil fuels cause to the environment (Olasolo et al., 2016). Most energy geothermal systems usually use water for cooling systems which may be harmful when exposed to the earth’s service. These water emissions may be harmful to the environment because it may contain sulfur. In enhanced geothermal systems, there is always the conversion of used water back to the ground to be reused in heat generation thus making the system to be environmentally viable. 

Evaluation 

Since some of the statistical resources were from different years, there is a possibility that the potential for dry heat rock has reduced because of the implementation of enhanced geothermal systems in some regions. 

Inference 

The enhanced geothermal system has the impact of reducing environmental pollution by because the plants are closed to avoid exposing heated water into the atmosphere. 

Conclusion 

Enhanced geothermal has great potential compared to other forms of geothermal energy because it does not depend on natural resources. 

References 

Fridleifsson, G. O., Bogason, S. G., Stoklosa, A. W., Ingolfsson, H. P., Vergnes, P. T. I. O., Thorbjörnsson, I. Ö., ... & Sæther, S. (2016, September). Deployment of deep enhanced geothermal systems for sustainable energy business. In Proceedings of the Conference: European Geothermal Congress (p. 8). 

Lu, S. M. (2018). A global review of enhanced geothermal system (EGS). Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 81, 2902-2921. 

Menberg, K., Pfister, S., Blum, P., & Bayer, P. (2016). A matter of meters: state of the art in the life cycle assessment of enhanced geothermal systems. Energy & Environmental Science, 9(9), 2720-2743. 

Olasolo, P., Juárez, M. C., Morales, M. P., & Liarte, I. A. (2016). Enhanced geothermal systems (EGS): A review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 56, 133-144. 

Xu, C., Dowd, P. A., & Tian, Z. F. (2015). A simplified coupled hydro-thermal model for enhanced geothermal systems. Applied Energy, 140, 135-145.