Although geothermal energy and solar energy are both renewable clean energy, but their potential is somewhat different. First of all, the annual power generation potential of geothermal energy is equivalent to about 75,000 billion tons of standard coal, but, according to relevant data, the earth’s surface, every square meter can receive about 1kW of solar energy per second, so the resource potential of solar energy is far more than geothermal energy.
First of all, you need to know is that geothermal energy power station usually need to utilize the thermal energy under the ground, so geothermal energy power generation equipment of the heat engine (used to absorb and convert thermal energy) will work under the ground, and the ground equipment is mainly generator sets, transformers and control room, these equipment do not need to occupy a large area, which can be seen that the construction of a geothermal energy power station does not require a large area of land.
Secondly, solar power equipment in the solar panel needs to occupy a considerable part of the area, for example, if you want to build a 30kW solar system, assuming that you use a 200watt monocrystalline solar panels, a single monocrystalline solar panel area of about 17.2ft², building a 30kW solar system you need 150 such a solar panel. To build a 30kW solar system you will need 150 such panels, the bare solar panel footprint is 2580ft², and of course you need to take into account the gap between the panels.
This shows that for the same amount of power generated, a solar power facility has a larger footprint. However, solar systems can be built with a more free area, you can even build a solar system that sits on the roof of your home, but the area of a geothermal power plant is usually more fixed, and the size of the area is generally determined by the local geothermal energy level.
Solar power generation equipment pre-investment is mainly for power generation equipment and equipment, transportation costs, installation costs, etc., with the development of the photovoltaic industry, photovoltaic equipment prices are more affordable, for example, at present, the price of solar panels in the $ 0.1/watt or so, it can be seen that the cost of the solar power generation equipment pre-investment can be accepted by the majority of families.
In terms of construction time, if the family use of solar energy systems, can do 1-3 days to complete the construction of solar energy systems and put into use, even if it is a large solar power station, the construction time is generally about half a year on the completion of the construction and put into use.
However, the development and utilization of geothermal energy requires considerable capital investment, geothermal energy development not only requires power generation devices, and the need for construction of the area of a rigorous geological survey and resource assessment, which requires a lot of money and time, the main thing is to want to utilize the geothermal energy must be carried out on the drilling work, according to the relevant data show that the cost of drilling roughly in the $ 600/m to $ 10,000/m , （the price depends on the difficulty of the construction. The price should be based on the construction difficulty to see), it can be seen that the utilization of geothermal energy is a huge cost of investment in the early stage.
On the construction time of geothermal power station, for example, the famous geothermal power station – Ladrillo thermal power station took 5 years to complete the construction, it can be seen that the geothermal power station compared to solar power station requires more huge investment of time and energy.
First of all, the distribution of geothermal energy is uneven, so the scalability of geothermal energy power station will be subject to geographical constraints, and secondly, in order to expand the geothermal energy power station needs to be considered in various aspects, including the huge expansion costs, and the feasibility of expansion, which will constrain the expansion of geothermal energy power station.
However, in the case of solar energy, solar energy is abundant in almost all parts of the world, and photovoltaic power generation technology is already very mature. For example, suppose you want to expand your home’s solar energy system, you only need to find professionals who can quickly complete the expansion of your solar energy system as long as you have enough space. As you can see, the expandability of solar energy is much higher than geothermal energy.
In terms of the stability of energy supply, because the equipment for absorbing and transforming geothermal energy is located underground, the utilization of geothermal energy is rarely affected by the external natural environment, plus the geothermal energy is a continuous flow throughout the day, which makes the process of geothermal energy power generation very stable, which leads to the higher stability of the energy supply of geothermal energy.
The use of solar energy is not only affected by the environment, including cloudy and rainy weather, etc., the solar energy system generates less electricity in a weak light environment, and the solar energy system can not work at night when there is no light, which makes the energy supply of solar energy system is not as stable as geothermal energy.
First of all, once the geothermal power station is built, it basically does not need too much maintenance, while the solar system needs to clean the surface of the panel regularly, otherwise the power generation efficiency of the solar system will be reduced, which makes the maintenance cost of the solar power station will be higher than that of the geothermal power station.
In conclusion, geothermal energy and solar energy are both important renewable energy sources that can effectively reduce the use of fossil energy. However, in terms of development potential, solar energy will be a better choice, because ordinary households can also use solar power systems to power their equipment, knowing that this can save a considerable amount of electricity bills.
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