Geothermal Energy

GEOTHERMAL ENERGY

Disclaimer: Yes I know that this is a random blog post and totally not related to my other ones but

I ran out of interesting ideas.

What it is

Geothermal energy is heat energy stored inside the earth's crust or parts of its upper mantle. Being a renewable source of energy, geothermal energy is available at all times. It is considered to be a renewable energy source since there is an almost unlimited amount of heat being produced by Earth's core.

How it Works

A geothermal power plant is established in an area with high geothermal activity. An ideal place for a geothermal power plant would be above or near an underground heat source such as an underground reservoir of hot water. As you can see in this diagram to the left, the power plant takes advantage of the geothermal reservoir provided.

First, water is injected into the crust and passes through the geothermal reservoir.

Then, water is heated by the reservoir and is converted into steam.

Next, steam is pumped into the turbine to power it.

After that, turbine turns the generator which produced electricity that goes to consumers..

Steam exits the turbine and then is condensed back into water via the condenser and the cycle repeats over and over again.

Advantages

With proper heat reservoir management, geothermal energy can be run indefinitely. This is due to the almost unlimited supply of heat from the geothermal reservoir. Geothermal energy is also is the cleanest source of energy.

It produces around none to minimal greenhouse gas emissions. The usual geothermal power plant produces about 122 kg of CO2 for every MW (megawatt) hour of electricity it generates. The average coal power plant produces 978 kg of CO2 for every MW hour. If you compare the amount of CO2 generated, the geothermal power plant CO2 emission are reduced by 87.5%.

Geothermal power plants provide long term cost certainty which means that electricity rates are more stable compared to other energy sources. By product heat of the power plant can be used for other things like food processing and fish farms

Disadvantages

Geothermal power plants are expensive to build. A single power plant costs around $2 million to $7 million to build though it can pay itself off after 5 to 10 years.

Geothermal power plants are very location specific. Sometimes a geothermal power plant could be miles away from a residential area which means more cost for the installation of power lines.

Installing a geothermal power plant can affect the land stability of the area. The installation of a power plant in Switzerland on January 1997 caused a 3.4 magnitude earthquake forcing construction workers to abandon the project.

 Where is it used in Canada

Canada has no geothermal power plants for commercial use despite it having excellent geothermal resources; the most ideal places are located to the west and north of the country.

BC hydro has identified 16 ideal places in the province for geothermal power plant installation. The South Meager geothermal project, 55 km north of Pemberton, has the potential to generate 100 MW of energy which is enough power for 80,000 homes.

Windows XP- Why is it still so popular after over a decade?

After a small break, we come back to continuing our 'Windows PC' series. If you are new to the series, I will be using an abbreviation called OS which stands for operating system. Today we will go all the way back to 2001 and review Windows XP, possibly the best OS of its era.

4 years ago, on April 8, 2014, Microsoft discontinued Windows XP support, meaning that it won't receive any important software or security updates anymore. However, a sizable chunk of PC users still run this outdated OS. In numbers, 16% of the world's PC's run Windows XP. Why? Well, it's a long story. So settle down with a blanket and maybe even make yourself a cup for tea, and read on.

Usually, every time Microsoft releases a new version on Windows onto the market, they allow users of the previous Windows OS a limited time offer to upgrade for free. After that, if you wish to upgrade, you will have to pay for the newer version. This is how Microsoft gets its users to user newer versions. As said before, Microsoft also discontinues support for older versions of Windows OS to encourage people to use the newer versions. 

Windows XP is different in this case. There was a sort of gap in between versions. The newer version that followed Windows XP was called 'Windows Vista'. When it came out, some people upgraded immediately, hoping that it would be a better version; only to find out that it sucked. There were multiple problems with Windows Vista, which we will discuss more in-depth for an upcoming blog post. The security updated were bugged, the processing speed was comparable to that of a sloth with default configuration and acceptable driver card support was almost non-existent. To put it simply, Windows XP, the PREVIOUS version, was BETTER than Vista; and people had to PAY for it

(shame on you Microsoft..). As a result, many disappointing users reverted back to Windows XP. 

Finally, on July 22, 2009, Microsoft redeemed itself with Windows 7, arguably the best version that we all know and love today. The OS ran very smoothly and at a fast speed and the display and formatting was nice and polished. But the ironic thing is that Windows Vista was originally supposed to be Windows 7. Yes, the best OS in the series was originally going to be in worst one. 

And that's pretty much how it all went down. Windows users that reverted back to Windows XP after Vista now had to pay for Windows 7 if they wanted to upgrade therefore explaining why so many people still use Windows XP.

(Now look at your cup of tea that you might have made earlier; I bet it's still full).