What is the difference between thermal and geothermal energy?explain fully.?

Question

What is the difference between thermal and geothermal energy?explain fully.?

Answer 1

1) Ban thermal and nuclear power use which are heavily polluting and non-renewable. Use hydel power, geo-thermal, wind, solar, tidal and seawave energy resources.

2) Ban natural gas and oil use which is almost dried up and private automobiles in cities and towns and use bicycles and public transport.

3) Mining and mineral extraction industry be Govt owned as minerals, iron and other metals are fast drying up.

4) Plant trees in your localities and force Govt to do so around roads and increase forest cover over barren lands.

5) Mark farmlands and stop urbanisation or industrialisation on them.

Answer 2

You can think of geothermal energy as the famous geyser at Yellowstone National Park.  Hot water shoots out of the ground or earth (geo) and goes to a great height.

There is a scientific theory that the center of the earth is really, really hot -- so hot that even the rocks are melted.  There is the theory that volcanoes erupt because the hot material breaks through the earth's crust, and the molten material gets pushed up.

In Iceland, they actually provide all the heat for all the homes in the one big city by using the heat (thermal) from geyser water to heat other water which they run through underground pipes to all the radiators in town.  Except for the maintenance of the pipes and heat (thermal) exchange system, the heated water is free, so the cost of keeping your apartment or house warm is free.

They also have bought electrical generators from Germany, and have installed these generators in volcanic vents.  They use the steam which flows out of these vents to turn the generators and thereby get free electricty.  (Free except for the cost of replacing the generators and repairing the distribution system.)  I am not sure how much of the total amount of electricity generated in Iceland by this method is, but I've been told it is a significant contributor.

So, geothermal energy is that produced by the earth.

You can get thermal energy (energy produced by heat) from all kinds of ways.

If you take a piece of cloth and rub it rapidly over your   fingernail, you'll feel heat.  If you continue to rub it, you'll stop pretty soon because it will get too hot.  The thermal energy you feel is being produced by the friction between the cloth and your nail.

Fire by friction is created by rubbing two pieces of wood together until one piece of wood gets so hot that a spark is created.  (Usually, a bow is used to spin a dowel against a baseboard.)  That is also an example of friction.

It may be harder to visualize, but an airplane can fly so fast that the air flowing over the metal of the airplane can heat the metal so that it is red-hot.  For this reason, special metals or special plastic type skins have been developed to withstand very, very high temperatures.  Again, thermal energy from the friction of air flowing over something.

You know that fire can produce heat, so we can boil water over a fire, whether that fire comes from wood or from gas or from propane, or many other sources.  This is thermal energy.

You know that your car engine gets too hot to touch.  Again, the gasoline burns to make the pistons go up and down, and the friction of the pistons going up and down makes the engine hot.

And, when you don't do what your parents ask you to do, the friction between you and your parents makes someone hot and bothered.  I don't think you would call this thermal energy, though.

Answer 3

Geothermal Electricity Explained  

Geothermal Electricity is produced from the thermal energy contained in the Earth. Use of geothermal energy is based thermodynamically on the temperature difference between a mass of subsurface rock and water and a mass of water or air at the Earth's surface. This temperature difference allows production of thermal energy that can be either used directly or converted to mechanical or Geothermal Electricity.

Commercial exploration and development of Geothermal Electricity to date have focused on natural geothermal reservoirs—volumes of rock at high temperatures (up to 662°F or 350°C) and with both high porosity (pore space, usually filled with water) and high permeability (ability to transmit fluid). The thermal energy is tapped by drilling wells into the reservoirs. The thermal energy in the rock is transferred by conduction to the fluid, which subsequently flows to the well and then to the Earth's surface where it can be converted into Geothermal Electricity.

There are several types of natural geothermal reservoirs. All the reservoirs developed to date for electrical energy are termed hydrothermal convection systems and are characterized by circulation of meteoric (surface) water to depth. The driving force of the convection systems is gravity, effective because of the density difference between cold, downward-moving, recharge water and heated, upward-moving, thermal water. A hydrothermal convection system can be driven either by an underlying young igneous intrusion or by merely deep circulation of water along faults and fractures. Depending on the physical state of the pore fluid, there are two kinds of hydrothermal convection systems: liquid-dominated, in which all the pores and fractures are filled with liquid water that exists at temperatures well above boiling at atmospheric pressure, owing to the pressure of overlying water; and vapor-dominated, in which the larger pores and fractures are filled with steam. Liquid-dominated reservoirs produce either water or a mixture of water and steam, whereas vapor-dominated reservoirs produce only steam, in most cases superheated.

Although geothermal energy is present everywhere beneath the Earth's surface, its use is possible only when certain conditions are met: (1) The energy must be accessible to drilling, usually at depths of less than 2 mi (3 km) but possibly at depths of 4mi (6–7km) in particularly favorable environments (such as in the northern Gulf of Mexico Basin of the United States). (2) Pending demonstration of the technology and economics for fracturing and producing energy from rock of low permeability, the reservoir porosity and permeability must be sufficiently high to allow production of large quantities of thermal water. (3) Since a major cost in geothermal development is drilling and since costs per meter increase with increasing depth, the shallower the concentration of geothermal energy the better. (4) Geothermal fluids can be transported economically by pipeline on the Earth's surface only a few tens of kilometers, and thus any generating or direct-use facility must be located at or near the geothermal anomaly.

The use of geothermal energy for Geothermal Electricity has become widespread because of several factors. Countries where geothermal resources are prevalent have desired to develop their own resources in contrast to importing fuel for power generation. In countries where many resource alternatives are available for power generation, including geothermal, geothermal has been a preferred resource because it cannot be transported for sale, and the use of geothermal energy enables fossil fuels to be used for higher and better purposes than power generation. Also, geothermal steam has become an attractive power generation alternative because of environmental benefits and because the unit sizes are small (normally less than 100 MW). Moreover, geothermal plants can be built much more rapidly than plants using fossil fuel and nuclear resources, which, for economic purposes, have to be very large in size. Electrical utility systems are also more reliable if their power sources are not concentrated in a small number of large units.

Answer 4

o.kay

about geo thermal.....

geo means....earth.-(1)

thermal means...heat.- (2)

so,combining (1) and (2)

geo thermal means ,heat energy from the earth.....

about thermal,it is simply heat energy....

to be more clear,for e.g....

thermal clothing: it is that which is made up of special materials,which makes our body warm....used in winter....

so the difference is.....

thermal is related to heat,but geo-thermal is related to earth's heat.....

Answer 5

thermal energy is generated by burning of coal and making steam from the water, while geothermal energy is what where u `ld get energy (heat) from earth strata