When was geothermal energy first discovered

We invite you to study the timeline of the recent history of geothermal energy in the United States. As European settlers moved westward across the continent, they gravitated toward these springs of warmth and vitality.

In , the first European to visit the Yellowstone area, John Colter, probably encountered hot springs, leading to the designation "Colter's Hell.

William Bell Elliot, a member of John C. Fremont's survey party, stumbles upon a steaming valley just north of what is now San Francisco, California. Elliot calls the area The Geysers—a misnomer—and thinks he has found the gates of Hell. Guests include J. Pierpont Morgan, Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, and Mark Twain. At springs located southeast of The Geysers, businessman Sam Brannan pours an estimated half million dollars into an extravagant development dubbed "Calistoga," replete with hotel, bathhouses, skating pavilion, and racetrack.

Brannan's was one of many spas reminiscent of those of Europe. Homes and dwellings have been built near springs through the millennia to take advantage of the natural heat of these geothermal springs, but the construction of the Hot Lake Hotel near La Grande, Oregon, marks the first time that the energy from hot springs is used on a large scale.

Folks in Boise, Idaho, feel the heat of the world's first district heating system as water is piped from hot springs to town buildings. Within a few years, the system is serving homes and 40 downtown businesses. Today, there are four district heating systems in Boise that provide heat to over 5 million square feet of residential, business, and governmental space. Although no one imitated this system for some 70 years, there are now 17 district heating systems in the United States and dozens more around the world.

Prince Piero Ginori Conti invents the first geothermal power plant at the Larderello dry steam field in Tuscany, Italy. John D. Grant drills a well at The Geysers with the intention of generating electricity.

This effort is unsuccessful, but one year later Grant meets with success across the valley at another site, and the United States' first geothermal power plant goes into operation. Grant uses steam from the first well to build a second well, and, several wells later, the operation is producing kilowatts, enough electricity to light the buildings and streets at the resort. The plant, however, is not competitive with other sources of power, and it soon falls into disuse. The first commercial greenhouse use of geothermal energy is undertaken in Boise, Idaho.

The operation uses a foot well drilled in Today, more than DHEs are in use around the country. Geothermal technology moves east when Professor Carl Nielsen of Ohio State University develops the first ground-source heat pump, for use at his residence. Krocker, an engineer in Portland, Oregon, pioneers the first commercial building use of a groundwater heat pump. The country's first large-scale geothermal electricity-generating plant begins operation. Pacific Gas and Electric operates the plant, located at The Geysers.

Nineteen systems went into operation after , most during the s. The most recently created system in the U. In , Reykjavik, Iceland, began using geothermal district heating and Reykjavik District Heating now called Reykjavik Energy was established in Lund , In , Prince Piero Ginori Conti invented the first geothermal power plant at the Larderello dry steam field in Italy.

This plant is still operating. In John D. Grant helped to establish the U. Today there are 23 power plants at The Geysers with a combined capacity of MW. Calpine owns 15 plants with a combined capacity of MW - enough energy to meet the needs of , homes. The first commercial ground-source geothermal heat pump went into operation in at the Equitable Building, now called the Commonwealth Building in Portland, Oregon.

The s saw a rapid increase in the number of district heating systems in the United States. It also saw advances in technology for geothermal power plants with successful demonstrations of flash steam systems and binary cycle systems.

These underground reservoirs of steam and hot water can be tapped to generate electricity or to heat and cool buildings directly. Geothermal water from deeper in the Earth can be used directly for heating homes and offices, or for growing plants in greenhouses. Some U. To produce geothermal-generated electricity, wells, sometimes a mile 1. The first geothermally generated electricity was produced in Larderello, Italy, in There are three types of geothermal power plants: dry steam, flash, and binary.

Dry steam, the oldest geothermal technology, takes steam out of fractures in the ground and uses it to directly drive a turbine. Flash plants pull deep, high-pressure hot water into cooler, low-pressure water. The steam that results from this process is used to drive the turbine. In binary plants, the hot water is passed by a secondary fluid with a much lower boiling point than water. This causes the secondary fluid to turn to vapor, which then drives a turbine.

Most geothermal power plants in the future will be binary plants. Geothermal energy is generated in over 20 countries. In Iceland, many of the buildings and even swimming pools are heated with geothermal hot water. Iceland has at least 25 active volcanoes and many hot springs and geysers. There are many advantages of geothermal energy.

It can be extracted without burning a fossil fuel such as coal, gas, or oil. Geothermal fields produce only about one-sixth of the carbon dioxide that a relatively clean natural-gas-fueled power plant produces. Binary plants release essentially no emissions. Unlike solar and wind energy, geothermal energy is always available, days a year.