Carbon dioxide emissions from geothermal power plants

Deep geothermal energy extraction, a review on environmental hotspots with focus on geo-technical site conditions

“…Moreover, none of the studies distinguished between anthropogenic and natural NCG emissions, except for a scenario in [37], which considered 40% of the emissions to be natural. Natural emissions refer those that would occur due to natural leakage and some researchers have suggested that they should be deducted from the plant's emissions [67,68]. The effect of energy production on natural emissions can vary for different sites and different time periods.…”

“…The effect of energy production on natural emissions can vary for different sites and different time periods. For the Ohaaki plant, energy production is expected to cause an increase on the CO2 emissions compared to the natural state, for 100 years of analysis [68]. For 300 years however, the CO2 emissions compared to the natural state are lower, as the geofluid's exploitation causes its depletion on NCGs.…”

The role of regulation in geothermal energy in the UK

“…Where a heat pump is required to increase the temperature of the abstracted geothermal heat, the amount of carbon savings depends on the electricity mix for running the heat pump and its efficiency, but studies have shown that significant carbon emission savings can be made by using ground source heat pumps (which use shallow geothermal energy) rather than conventional heating systems (Saner et al, 2010;Bayer et al, 2012). Deep geothermal energy can be used to produce electricity as well as to provide heating, and although the greenhouse gas emissions vary depending on the geological conditions and technology and procedures used (Menberg et al, 2016), geothermal power plants generally produce fewer carbon emissions than those that use fossil fuels (O'Sullivan et al, 2021).…”

Energy Reductions Are Incompatible With Economic Growth

“…Geothermal plants can also release CO2 in addition to that from input energy. Although O'Sullivan et al [28] have shown that after plant retirement, CO2 emissions eventually fall below natural levels, resulting in no net emissions after several centuries, this is of little help, since the next one or two decades are crucial for emissions reduction.…”