Geothermal Energy
With the world utilizing more and more energy every year, most power plants need steam to generate electricity. The steam rotates a turbine that activates a generator, which produces electricity. Many power plants still use fossil fuels to boil water for steam. Geothermal power plants, however, do not. They use steam produced from reservoirs of hot water found a couple of miles or more below the Earth's surface. There are three types of geothermal power plants: dry steam, flash steam, and binary cycle. Dry steam power plants draw from underground resources of steam. The steam is then piped directly from underground wells to the power plant, where it is then directed into a turbine/generator unit. There are only two known underground resources of steam in the United States: The Geysers in northern California and Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, where there's a well-known geyser called Old Faithful. Everyone has heard of Old Faithful, and now you know what it is. Since Yellowstone is protected from development, the only dry steam plants in the country are at The Geysers. Flash steam power plants are the most common. They use geothermal reservoirs of water with temperatures