Earlier in a post, I discussed the various advantages of geothermal energy and its effects. But the question remains that if geothermal energy is so clean and productive, then why don’t we use it commonly to generate power? Here are some disadvantages of producing power through geothermal energy to explain this.

The biggest disadvantages of building a geothermal energy plant is the time it takes to exploration the perfect land. While exploring the suitable place, researchers will do a land survey, which may take several years to complete. Thus if a company wishes to build a plant, it may have to wait for several years before the researchers reply whether the land is suitable or not.

Moreover, most companies that order surveys are often disappointed, as the land they were interested is incapable of supporting a geothermal energy plant. In order to extract the heat required, we have to find certain hot spots within the earths crust, which are quite common around volcanoes and fault lines, which are obviously very difficult places to build a geothermal energy plant.

It has been proposed that solar power facilities in southern Nevada will make use of dry cooling to conserve water and reduce the environmental impact of the facilities.

Dry cooling uses fans and heat exchangers to cool off the water that is condensed from steam. It is far more electricity-intensive than wet cooling. But it uses 90% less water, which is a precious resource in the arid Southwest.

The main issue behind this is that the driest parts of the country are the most suitable ones for solar energy projects. The Nevada facilities’ developer, Solar Millennium, had planned to use wet cooling but switched to dry cooling to speed regulatory approval.

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ESolar launched the first commercial solar power tower in the United States, near Lancaster, California.  The Sierra SunTower solar power plant is located about 50 miles north of Los Angeles in California’s Antelope Valley.

It uses advanced computer software to precisely align thousands of flat mirrors, in order to concentrate the sun’s heat on a receiver mounted at the top of a tower.

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We all know that electricity flows in wires and lights up bulbs, allowing us to use electrical devices like computers and kitchen machines. But the question arises where does the electricity comes from. In this post we will learn about how electricity is generated in power plant and in future posts we will get more knowledge of resources that produce heat to create electricity.  In next post we will get to know how electricity is brought to homes, schools and market from power plant.

How is Electricity Produced?

Thermal power plants have big boilers in which a fuel is burnt to produce heat. It is the same as a kettle on stove. When the water in a kettle boils, it produces steam that evolves through a hole above on the spout. The evolving steam makes a whistle to alert that the water is boiled.

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