Geothermal Power: Electricity from Hot Rock

0:00How can heat from deep in the ground make electricity? Let us find out.

0:06Deep underground, the rock is very hot. In some places it is over 150 degrees Celsius only a couple of kilometres down.

0:16Two deep wells are drilled down into the hot rock.

0:20Cold water is pumped down one of the wells.

0:24The water soaks through cracks in the hot rock and gets very hot.

0:29Hot water and steam rush up the other well to the surface.

0:33At the power plant, the steam pushes on the blades of a turbine and spins it.

0:39The turbine turns a generator. Inside, a coil spinning near magnets makes electricity.

0:46Power lines carry the electricity to homes and schools.

0:52The used steam cools back into water and is pumped down again, so the same water goes round and round.

1:00The inside of the Earth stays hot for millions of years, so geothermal power is renewable.

1:07No fuel is burned, so there is almost no smoke, and it works day and night, in any weather.

1:14But it only works in places where hot rock is close to the surface, and a little gas from underground can leak out of the wells.

1:23Heat from hot rock turns water into steam, the steam spins a turbine and a generator, and that makes electricity.