Abstract
Despite the limitations of Planet Earth‘s conventional energy resources, the demand for energy is continuously rising as a result of increasing population and industrialization. The utilization of fossil energy resources, which led to great technological and social developments in the past, now is causing increasingly disastrous effects on the global environment. In this situation there is urgent need to deploy sustainable and environmentally clean energy sources. An important contribution could be made by rapidly expanding the use of renewable energy sources such as geothermal energy. A number of countries stand out as having made utilization of geothermal resources a national priority. This paper will illustrate the major aspects of geothermal energy, its generation, the relevant power plant technologies for electricity generation, the utilization of geothermal heat for direct uses, with focus on some showcases of best practice. The impact of geothermal energy in China is the topic of the second half of the present document.
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© 2008 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
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Bertani, R. (2008). Geothermal Energy. In: Clini, C., Musu, I., Gullino, M.L. (eds) Sustainable Development and Environmental Management. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6598-9_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6598-9_15
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-6597-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-6598-9
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