The non-combustion based renewable electricity generation technologies were assessed against a range of sustainability indicators and using data obtained from the literature. The indicators used to assess each technology were price of generated electricity, greenhouse gas emissions during full life cycle of the technology, availability of renewable sources, efficiency of energy conversion, land requirements, water consumption and social impacts. The cost of electricity, greenhouse gas emissions and the efficiency of electricity generation were found to have a very wide range for each technology, mainly due to variations in technological options as well as geographical dependence of each renewable energy source. The social impacts were assessed qualitatively based on the major individual impacts discussed in literature. Renewable energy technologies were then ranked against each indicator assuming that indicators have equal importance for sustainable development. It was found that wind power is the most sustainable, followed by hydropower, photovoltaic and then geothermal. Wind power was identified with the lowest relative greenhouse gas emissions, the least water consumption demands and with the most favourable social impacts comparing to other technologies, but requires larger land and has high relative capital costs.

/pdf/assessment-of-sustainability-indicators-for-renewable-energy-15v882jasq.pdf

Assessment of sustainability indicators for renewable energy technologies

Geothermal, solar and wind are all clean, renewable energies with a huge amount of resources and a great potential of electricity generation. Geothermal energy had definitely dominated the renewable energy market in terms of the installed electricity power about 30 years ago. The unfortunate fact is that the total installed capacity of geothermal electricity has been eclipsed by solar and wind in recent years. In this paper, benefits of using renewable energy resources (RER) have been summarized and attempt has been made to explain the recent trends causing the shift from geothermal energy to solar and wind. Cost, payback time, size of power generation, construction time, resource capacity, characteristics of resource, and other factors were to compare geothermal, solar, and wind power generation systems. Furthermore, historical data from geothermal, solar, and wind industries were collected and analyzed at the global scale. The data from hydropower were also considered in the comparison. Finally, we proposed suggestions for the geothermal industry to catch up with solar and wind industries.

/pdf/comparison-of-geothermal-with-solar-and-wind-power-1g9f0n5nlw.pdf

Comparison of geothermal with solar and wind power generation systems

CO2 savings of ground source heat pump systems – A regional analysis

Integration of storage and renewable energy into district heating systems: A review of modelling and optimization

This paper first describes the salient features of the various types of geothermal energy resources potentially available for exploitation: (1) convective (“hydrothermal”) systems, (2) enhanced geothermal systems (“EGS”), (3) conductive sedimentary systems, (4) produced water from oil and gas fields, (5) geopressured systems, and (6) magma energy. Of these six types, only hydrothermal systems have been commercially exploited to date; there are still technical or economic barriers to exploiting the others. In the U.S., the resource base in EGS is two orders of magnitude higher than in the other types combined; the same is likely to be true for the world. The paper then considers how long geothermal energy can supply the U.S. and the world. It can be argued that commercial geothermal energy exploitation is primarily a heat mining operation rather than tapping an instantly renewable energy source, such as, solar, wind or biomass energy. At the current annual energy consumption rate, geothermal heat mining can theoretically supply the world for several millenia. If a commercial geothermal exploitation project is operated for a typical life of 20 to 30 years and then shut down, the resource would be naturally replenished and available for exploitation again in about a century. With such a scheme, a geothermal project could be made entirely renewable, and therefore, practically inexhaustible. This situation is comparable to sustainable forestry. Finally, the paper considers the potential rate of growth in installed geothermal power capacity. It is concluded that between years 2010 and 2050, geothermal power capacity in the world would increase from 10,000 MW to perhaps as high as 58,000 MW. The rate of growth in power capacity could be higher if adequate commercial incentives are offered by governments and international agencies.

/pdf/future-of-geothermal-energy-2b7qo0hayr.pdf

Future of geothermal energy

▪ Abstract Geothermal energy technology is reviewed in terms of its current impact and future potential as an energy source. In general, the geothermal energy resource base is large and well distributed globally. Geothermal systems have a number of positive social characteristics (they are simple, safe, and adaptable systems with modular 1–50 MW [thermal (t) or electric (e)] plants capable of providing continuous baseload, load following, or peaking capacity) and benign environmental attributes (negligible emissions of CO2, SOx, NOx, and particulates, and modest land and water use). Because these features are compatible with sustainable growth of global energy supplies in both developed and developing countries, geothermal energy is an attractive option to replace fossil and fissile fuels. In 1997, about 7,000 MWe of base-load generating capacity and over 15,000 MWt of heating capacity from high-grade geothermal resources are in commercial use worldwide. A key question is whether these levels can grow to ...

Geothermal energy from the earth : Its potential impact as an environmentally sustainable resource

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Geothermal energy from the earth : Its potential impact as an environmentally sustainable resource