Geothermal Energy

Most U.S. and world electricity generation is from electric power plants that use a turbine to drive electricity generators. In a turbine generator, a moving fluid—water, steam, combustion gases, or air—pushes a series of blades mounted on a rotor shaft. The force of the fluid on the blades spins (rotates) the rotor shaft of a generator. The generator, in turn, converts the mechanical (kinetic) energy of the rotor to electrical energy. Different types of turbines include steam turbines, combustion (gas) turbines, hydroelectric turbines, and wind turbines.

Steam turbines are used to generate most of the world’s electricity, and they accounted for about 42% of U.S. electricity generation in 2022. Most steam turbines have a boiler where fuel is burned to produce hot water and steam in a heat exchanger, and the steam powers a turbine that drives a generator. Nuclear power reactors use nuclear fuel rods to produce steam. Solar thermal power plants and most geothermal power plants use steam turbines. Most of the largest U.S. electric power plants use steam turbines.

A steam turbine is a device that converts high-pressure steam, produced in a boiler, into mechanical energy that can then be used to produce electricity by forcing blades in a cylinder to rotate and turn a generator shaft.

In other words, to create electricity all one needs is steam and a turbine. In 2022, about 60% of U.S. utility-scale electricity generation was produced from fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, and petroleum), about 18% was from nuclear energy, and about 22% was from renewable energy sources.

All electric power plants have a “boiler room.” This is where coal or other fuels boil water to create steam. It takes enormous quantities of fuel to constantly create the steam necessary to convert to electricity.

However, there is a much easier way to get steam. It’s a renewable energy source called geothermal. With this source of energy, hot water or steam is extracted from geothermal reservoirs in the Earth's crust.

Don Brown was one of the key scientists at Los Alamos. He wrote a book entitled Mining the Earth's Heat: Hot Dry Rock Geothermal Energy. Here is what he said:

‘It has been pointed out in several recent publications (e.g., Tester et al,. 1989a; MIT, 2006) that the hot dry rock geothermal resource represented by the vast regions of hot rock at accessible depths in the Earth’s crust far exceeds that of the combined total of the world’s fossil energy resources.’

America is truly a blessed land with enormous natural resources. Abundant rich soil in our plains to grow our wheat, corn, soybeans; food for us, food for our livestock. Vast forests; sources of lumber to build our homes and businesses.

But by far, the most incredible natural resource we have is the super volcano known as Yellowstone. There is enough heat beneath Yellowstone to power the entire North American continent on a continual basis. Subsurface heat under Yellowstone makes it the hottest area in the United States, and indeed, in the entire continent of North America.