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Geo Thermal 2
Tue Apr 20, 2004
Listen in RealAudio 
Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton for The Weather Notebook's Weekly Climate Change
series.
Geothermal plants tap into hot water below the earth's surface to produce heat and
electricity. That's a much cleaner source of energy than fossil fuels. This week, New
Hampshire Public Radio's Trish Anderton reports on potential geothermal hotspots
around the globe.
TA: Iceland heats 90 percent of its houses with geothermal energy. That's an
impressive number. But Professor Ingvar Fridleifsson of the United Nations
Geothermal Energy Training Program says other countries have great geothermal
potential too. One of them is Kenya, which has begun investing in both geothermal
and hydro power.
IF: They are nationalizing their grid and producing a fairly large share of electricity with
hydro, and in recent years, geothermal... so in the future it should not be a problem for
a country like Kenya to produce all of their energy with renewables.
TA: Another of these countries is China, a country that's key to the future of the earth's
climate. China is developing rapidly, and it's relying on an especially dirty energy
source.
IF: They have been heating with coal, and that is creating a lot of pollution, and that is
why the Chinese are trying to clean up the country and use energy more
efficiently.
TA: China has begun heating parts of its capital with geothermal, and Fridleiffson says
the technology could be used nationwide. One major hurdle to geothermal
development is high initial costs. It's a lot more expensive to drill for hot water than to
buy a diesel generator. Still Fridleiffson believes geothermal can play a signficant role
in reducing greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. China is planning to showcase
that potential at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. It hopes to get heat and hot water for a
portion of the Olympics from geothermal power.
Trish Anderton sent us this story from Reykjavik. Funding for The Weather Notebook
comes from Subaru of America and the National Science Foundation.
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