What is geothermal power
Geothermal power is the use of geothermal heat for electricity generation. The nearer you get to the Earth’s center the hotter it becomes. Nuclear reactions caused by the decay of radioactive materials, constantly heat the molten core to 40000C. In some places hot rocks lie quite near the surface, causing hot springs, geysers or steam to rise out of the ground. These can be used to produce electricity. In most places geothermal energy has to be tapped by drilling. In some cases there may be no water present at all, just dry hot rocks, whose heat can only be used if water is pumped down to them and then recovered as steam. The steam is then used to drive turbines and generate electricity. To extract energy two boreholes would have to be drilled. Cold water is pumped down through one borehole and the pressurised hot water is returned up through the other. The water would flow from one borehole to the other through fissures in the rock created by blasting it with explosives. Althought the
