Subject:- Renewable Energy Sources

Topic:- Geothermal Energy

Difficulty:- Low

• Oceans and rivers cover about 70% of the earth's surface which receive, store and dissipate vast amount of thermal energy. Thus they act as huge reservoirs of various renewable resources of energy.
• At present the technologies which are available to utilize this vast resources of energy are:
• Conversion of ocean wave energy to generate power . However ,this energy varies very widely with time and place in amplitude and frequency . Thus the power generation from waves is not cost effective.
• Conversion of tidal energy to generation power. The tides are caused due to the interaction of gravitational fields of the sun and the moon. The ocean level difference caused due to tides contain large amount of potential energy which can be used to run a hydraulic turbine. The cost of power generation is very high.
• The temperature gradient across the depth of sea can be used to generate electrical power. since the temperature differential is low , the efficiency of energy conversion is very low with high capital cost.