geothermal
adjective
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Geothermal comes partly from the Greek thermos, "hot". Most geothermal electricity is provided by power plants situated in areas where there is significant activity of the Earth's great tectonic plates—often the same areas where volcanoes are found. But hot water from deep underground may be used by cities far from volcanoes to heat buildings or sidewalks. And a newer source of geothermal energy relies on a less dramatic kind of heat: Individual homeowners can now install heat pumps that take advantage of the 50°-60° temperature of the soil near the surface to provide heating in cold weather (and air-conditioning in the warm months). These very small-scale geothermal systems may eventually supply more useful energy than the large power plants.
Examples of geothermal in a Sentence
Marie Poteriaieva, Forbes, 17 Sep. 2024
Google and Meta have been key partners for first-of-a-kind geothermal plants with young startups.
—Katie Fehrenbacher, Axios, 11 Sep. 2024
One of the group’s concerns about the geothermal plant is that its water use will leave less to replenish the Salton Sea.
—Melody Petersen, Los Angeles Times, 12 Aug. 2024
In other words, a supercritical geothermal plant could have a capacity of 50 MW and three wells could have the power output of 42 conventional geothermal wells.
—David Szondy, New Atlas, 6 Aug. 2024
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“Geothermal.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/geothermal. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.
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geothermal
adjective
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