From Guest Blogger Bara Sykorova: Geothermal Energy’s Potential to Power the World

The electricity market has recorded a move from a monopolistic regulation-based market to more of a competitive market. The amount of utility providers has increased, as well as the needs and requirements that an ordinary consumer has.

In fact, on the 9th of October 2017, an event in Reykjavik, Iceland took place in order to showcase the new opportunities for energy companies in the branding world. As experts say, it is time to earn a share in consumers’ hearts. The renewable energy providers should thus leverage the advantage of renewables becoming our inevitable future, and learn how to brand themselves while conveying the message of the added value they bring to people and the environment.

One of the speakers at the CHARGE Energy Branding Conference, Alexander Richter, the president of international geothermal association, was talking about the huge potential of geothermal energy, and rightfully so. In Iceland there is so much heat under the earth crust that it helps covering 66% of Icelandic population’s primary energy usage. To this date, 9/10 households in Iceland are heated using geothermal energy.

However, we are not limited only to places where volcanoes and geysers exist. In fact, an omnipresent magma is the main source of heat, and if proper technology is developed, the whole planet could source heat right from this molten rock in the future.

But before that, several technologies have been developed in order to make use of geothermal power. Many households have chosen to implement a geothermal system, which has reduced their energy bills by 70%. There are several types of such systems which are all adapted to the land size, hydrology and geology of the land.

The most common geothermal systems are water source, air-to-air, air-to-water heat pumps, and ground source heat pumps. These can either be horizontal or vertical with different looping systems. People usually go for the vertical option when the land size is not big enough and the geology is good, as the drilling has to happen much deeper than when installing a ground source heat pump.

But what about the governmental actions in this area? Obviously there are various incentives that differ from country to country. The USA, being the biggest geothermal energy producer, has many incentives that help people have their own systems built in.

But there is more good news: the World Bank estimates that 40 countries could meet a large proportion of their electricity demand through geothermal power. What is more, only 6.5% of the geothermal global potential has been made use of so far.

Another indicator of this huge potential is the recent announcement of the Danish major energy company DONG Energy about its disinvestment of the oil and gas business, gradually moving towards only renewables.

Let that be a very positive promise to humanity that there is a way to produce energy just from renewable sources, and it will sooner or later become a major (if not the only) source of energy.