Writing a new introduction to geothermal energy for ThinkGeoEnergy
Snapshot of Geothermal Heat Pump Manual sample pages at Pentagram.com
Alexander Richter
2 Jun 2014
ThinkGeoEnergy is planning to write a new introduction to geothermal energy for the website and is asking for your input on the structure and content. Please help us.
The geothermal energy industry faces some big challenges and one is that it falls behind in awareness compared to other renewable energy technologies. It seems like everywhere you go and talk about what you are doing you are either put in the ground-source heat pump category or people have simply no clue about what geothermal energy has to offer.
People also always think, isn’t it that technology that only works on volcanic regions, like in Iceland and New Zealand?
So over the years following companies and their presentations at the various geothermal and non-geothermal events, all seem to have to explain what geothermal is and what its key benefits are before they can talk about what they have to offer.
In my role in banking, we published reports on the U.S. geothermal market (based mostly on the data from the U.S. Geothermal Energy Association) and Iceland mainly to promote geothermal. The reception we received was great. I always wondered why people were so glad with these reports as they simply did not present so much different information. It seemed though that the simple reason for our reports coming from a bank, gave them a better credibility and reach.
The same I experienced with other reports written by other people and organizations that often actually use ThinkGeoEnergy as a resource for news and updates from the industry, beside the fine information available from the fine industry associations and organizations.
One of the things I always wanted to do as part of my work here on ThinkGeoEnergy.com, was to present geothermal energy and introduce not only the opportunities provided through it, but also how utilization of geothermal works. How is the energy derived? What does it take to develop projects? What is the value chain?
Well, for the past few years, the “Geothermal“-page of ThinkGeoEnergy has been a sorry excuse of a geothermal introduction and way to long a “work in progress”. I must apologize for that. While having elaborated on a potential book on geothermal energy, in my article “My vision for an overview and promotional book on geothermal energy” from September 2013, yes this is now nearly a year ago, I pledge to change this in the coming months.
Therefore I want to reach out to the geothermal community and ask you the question on what do you think would be a proper geothermal introduction to be published on ThinkGeoEnergy?
A. Would it be a general introduction what geothermal is and offers? (Power, heat, cooling and heat pumps),
B. Would it be an introduction on what it takes to derive and utilize geothermal energy? (development and value chain), or
C. Would it be a combination of A & B?
I would then explore the idea to involve experts of the different fields for interviews and maybe a participation in form of introductions. The idea is to combine this with infographics, photographs and commentary from experts and maybe even publish this in a book going forward.
