Mustering Up Energy

Geothermal energy competes with the sun

It might not be a shock, but one of the funny side effects of the most recent solar eclipse was that the production of solar energy dipped a little. Of course, no sun means no solar energy created; even on rainy days, the production of energy decreases. But what if there was a renewable energy source that could be consistently relied upon? A majority of the members of the Greenwich Representative Town Meeting noted an energy source that will never dip: The Earth.

With a nearly 85% vote, the RTM urged much of the rest of the town to look into Geothermal energy, which has had years of development since first implemented over 100 years ago. But what is Geothermal exactly? It’s the process of harvesting the natural heating properties of the Earth. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the Earth has several zones: The crust (which we live on), the mantle, the outer core, and the inner core which is made of molten iron. The inner core is as hot as the sun, over, 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, but even the mantle-crust boundary reaches about 392 degrees F.

Geothermal Energy doesn’t even have to drill miles deep to take advantage of this property. Just under the surface, maybe 10 to 15 feet deep, the temperature of the soil remains at a consistent 50 to 60 degrees F. So whether it’s deep in winter or in the dog days of summer, the soil temperature is always moderate. Geothermal energy takes advantage of this consistency to bring heat in when it’s cold and dump heat in the ground when it is hot. This makes it among the most reliable forms of energy production, and for the most part, it is pollution-free.

Of note, one school in the Greenwich system is already on geothermal energy, but the system began to fail after “years of misuse,” according to one CT Insider article. It was those underground “wells” that perhaps failed.

Despite this, upgrades even in the last two decades have improved this technology greatly. And while our oldest – and arguably, technically, only, - energy source, the sun, produces enough power for solar fields to power the entire world, it’s battery storage that is holding it back. Earth needs no battery storage because the internal temperature will always be warm. Its worth it for Greenwich and all other towns to look into Geothermal energy.