In the Western United States and in other places around the world, geothermal energy produces electricity in large power plants. Today, geothermal energy provides about five percent of California's electricity, and 25 percent of El Salvador's. In Idaho and Iceland, geothermal heat is used to warm buildings and other applications. In thousands of homes and buildings across the United States, geothermal heat pumps use the steady temperature just underground to heat and cool buildings, cleanly and inexpensively.

Physics of Geothermal Energy: Just a few meters below the earth's surface the temperature of the soil becomes rather constant. You can depend on this constant temperature throughout the seasons. You can extract this heat in the winter to heat your house or to "bury" your heat in the summer to cool your house. Trench-pipe systems are utilized in areas where ample space is available and well systems are utilized where there is limited space. It is within the trench or well system that "coolant" is circulated to deposit or extract the energy within the earth. As one can extrapolate, the further we reach into the earth the higher the temperature will be. We have a great understanding of the heat transfer parameters for all the zones of the United States. The physical parameters of this technology are beyond the scope of this paper, but past successes in design have demonstrated our ability to harness this energy. In addition, we can gain a great benefit from our oil companies. The technology successes that the oil companies have had in drilling for oil can now be applied to drilling for geothermal energy.

Great, How Much Will It Cost Us? An MIT study by MIT Professor Jefferson Tester et.al., The Future of Geothermal Energy, a study of the potential for geothermal energy within the United States, found that mining the huge amounts of heat that resides as stored thermal energy in the earth's hard rock crust could supply a substantial portion of the electricity the United States will need in the future, probably at competitive prices and with minimal environmental impact. It was their conclusion that geothermal energy could supply 10% of our electrical needs by the year 2050. This time frame could be accelerated if we, and our government, adopted a more aggressive schedule. A conclusion from the MIT study ,mentioned previously estimates that a project costing $300 million US dollars to $400 million US dollars is needed to fund early generation plants. The same study cites a US government study of geothermal energy which estimates that for every 100,000 nominally sized residential units consumers will save approximately $500 million over a 20 year time span in heating and cooling cost at today's prices. This estimate was from a 1993 US Government report. Installation of a heat pump in a four-bedroom, 3,000 square foot house situated in the middle of the US would cost approximately $26,000.00. Payback at today's energy cost of $0.09 per kilowatt would be in the range of 13 to 14 years. Government incentives and home appreciation are not included in this analysis.

Summary: Geothermal energy is a tested and available renewable energy that can be utilized to replace fossil fuels today. Heat mining has the potential to supply a significant amount of the country's electricity currently being generated by conventional fossil fuel, hydroelectric and nuclear plants. The resolve to replace fossil fuels with geothermal, wind or solar is left to us and to our government. The technologies are available and ready to be deployed.

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