South Forsyth High School (Cumming, Georgia, USA)
International Competitor
Pocket Power: Get on the Geobus! Spreading Awareness about Geothermal Energy to People of All Ages
Over the past three months, we have been tackling the question of how to alleviate the public’s fears of geothermal energy. We picked this topic specifically because it addresses a lesser-known renewable energy source that is not dependent on the weather. As long as a place has a viable area for a geothermal plant to be placed, it is suitable for long-term use of geothermal energy with little worries about phases with no power, unlike solar or wind energy. However, in order to get started, we needed to understand why our prompt is even a problem. Do people have serious fears regarding geothermal energy? Is there a major environmental backlash that would nullify the effects of a clean energy source? We decided to turn to our community in order to get an accurate view of what the people around us think about geothermal energy, and whether they would want a plant within their community. We created a survey of eleven questions that essentially asked for the comfort level of people regarding the use and benefits of geothermal energy (emissions, costs, environmental impact, etc.). The
responses we got were overwhelmingly positive to accepting geothermal energy as a source of renewable energy within their communities, and when asked about concerns they had, 57.8% responded with environmental concerns and 50.6% feared a lack of communication/information.
With this new information in mind, we began to think of ideas that would focus on providing more information to the public about geothermal energy because there are low long-term environmental concerns. In the end, we decided on an easily accessible app that would provide users with facts regarding geothermal energy, contacts of geothermal energy companies, and games for users to play. Our plan to disseminate this app, however, involved a completely different aspect. We know that it would be challenging to implement change in the generations that are ahead of us, so we wanted to start spreading ideas of clean energy and ways to achieve them among younger generations. Hence the idea of having a traveling bus – a “GeoBus” – that would visit schools and offer a workshop that demonstrates how geothermal energy would work in a real-life setting. For example, children could participate in an experiment with pipes to learn how hot water can be used for energy, then transferred back into the earth to be reheated and used again. Meanwhile, a link to our app would be placed on the outside of the bus for parents to look into and hopefully become more interested in geothermal energy, sparking a new way of thinking. We wanted to focus on spreading knowledge among a community about a topic that is not widely known, and encourage young minds to begin thinking about how they can play a role in healing the earth from harmful fossil fuels. We want them to truly understand that they can make a difference despite being young. We hope that the bus and by proxy the app will act as a great kickstarter for spreading awareness about the benefits of geothermal energy, which might eventually translate into more communities investing in a long-term renewable energy source.
Their YES! topic
#GREENINSTEADOFBROWN – HOW CAN ONE MEET FEARS OF SOCIETY & CREATE ACCEPTANCE FOR GEOTHERMAL ENERGY?
by Tabea Schröder and Markus Waldvogel
The German federal state of Nort Rhine-Westfalia is characterised by coal production, and both heat and electricity supply are based on non-renewable energies. In the course of the energy transition and the energy goal of 2050: “100% electricity from renewable energies”, there is an enormous need for action, both on a technical and on a social level.
Geothermal energy can make an important contribution to reducing energy-related CO2 emissions; geothermal energy offers the advantage of providing heat and electricity all year round, regardless of the time of day or weather, through the use of geothermal energy from boreholes. As a domestic energy source, it contributes to regional value creation and reduces dependence on energy imports. The sustainability of geothermal energy is demonstrated in Waren (a town in Germany), for example, where the local district heating network has been supplied with renewable geothermal energy since 1984.
But the use of renewable energies and the associated system infrastructure are also associated with environmental impacts. The expansion of renewable energies, grids and storage facilities must therefore be as environmentally compatible as possible. Negative examples such as the failure of a near-surface seal in the Landau geothermal plant (Landau is again a town in Germany), as well as uplifting of the ground due to water entering deep rock strata and also ground shaking, have caused the image of geothermal energy, especially deep geothermal energy, to be at least questioned. Given the resistance and emerging doubts and concerns among the population, the topic of public relations is thus becoming increasingly important, because “in addition to questions of technical feasibility and costs, social behavior plays a decisive role in whether and in what form the implementation of the energy transition succeeds” (Sterchele et al., 2020).
This project will now investigate how these fears and resistances could be countered and what measures can be used to establish geothermal energy as part of the energy transition.
- Do you find a similar situation in the US?
- What fears are present in society about geothermal energy?
- What methods/measures can be used to work against and overcome these fears?
- What does PR work need to create acceptance for geothermal energy?
- How can geothermal energy be established as a method for heat and power generation in society?
