An animated video from ScienceNordic explores sources of geothermal energy, from volcanic heat just under the surface of the Earth to radioactive heat five kilometers below. Hot springs are used to generate electricity and heat buildings in Iceland and Tuscany, where one-tenth of the world's geothermal energy is produced. Harvesting deep geothermal energy is more complex, however. The video illustrates how Norway's thermal power plants work, and how they hope to use technology developed for offshore oil drilling to overcome some of the challenges of extracting deep thermal energy.
Deep Heat was created by Per Byhring and Arnfinn Christensen for ScienceNordic, a website that covers science news from Nordic countries in English.
For more information about ScienceNordic, visit http://sciencenordic.com/.
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.
