Geothermal Energy

Geothermal electricity generation is

currently used in 26 countries, while
geothermal heating in 70 countries
Installed geothermal electric capacity

Capacity (MW) Capacity (MW) Capacity (MW) % of national % of global

Country electricity geothermal
2007[12] 2010[32] 2021[33]
production production (2021)

United States 2687 3086 3889 0.3 24.8

Indonesia 992 1197 2277 3.7 14.5

Philippines 1969.7 1904 1928 27 12.3

Turkey 38 82 1676 10.7

New Zealand 471.6 628 984 10 6.3

Mexico 953 958 976 3 6.2

Kenya 128.8 167 863 11.2 5.5

Italy 810.5 843 802 1.5 5.1

Iceland 421.2 575 756 30 4.8

Japan 535.2 536 481 0.1 3

Costa Rica 162.5 166 262 14 1.7

Iran 250 250

El Salvador 204.2 204 204 25 1.3

Nicaragua 87.4 88 153 10 1

Russia 79 82 81
 Geothermal Energy Generation
Direct Electrical
• Small scale uses • Dry steam
• Heating homes • Flash steam
• Greenhouse heating • Binary cycle
• Food dehydration
plants
• Agriculture
– Crop drying
– Milk purification
 ADVANTAGES OF GEOTHERMAL POWER
1. Geothermal energy is relatively environmentally friendly. Usually drilling of the
earth’s surface takes place. The surrounding environment is not harmed with
the exception of the land required for the power plant and transport links.
2. Unlike wind power, geothermal power can be relied on as it provides constant
power.
3. The use of conventional polluting fuels such as oil and coal can be reduced if
geothermal and other alternative energy forms are used (reducing pollution).
4. Geothermal power can take different forms. For instance, it can be used to
produce electricity or the hot water can be used directly to heat homes and
businesses.
5. Geothermal energy is cheap – new power plants can make electricity
for about the same as coal power plants.
6. Geothermal power plants have been built in deserts, in the middle of
crops, and in mountain forests!
7. Low Maintenance costs
• The underground piping often carries warranties of 25–50 years, and
the heat pumps often last 20 years or more.
 Disadvantages of Geothermal Energy
• First of all, you’ll need a location that offers just the right kind of hot
rocks. Just any hot rocks won’t do, since some rocks might prove too
strong to drill through.
• Drilling of rocks can release potentially harmful chemicals, as well as
gases such as hydrogen sulfide.
• Start-up Costs Are High
– Geothermal Plants Require Significant Capital
Expenditures, But the Fuel Is Free
• Smelly gasses – H2S, Ammonia, Boron
• Release of steam and hot water can be noisy
• Construction of Plants can adversely affect land stability
 Power station types
• Geothermal power stations are similar to other steam turbine thermal power
stations – heat from a fuel source (in geothermal case, the earth's core) is used to
heat water or another working fluid. The working fluid is then used to turn a
turbine of a generator, thereby producing electricity. The fluid is then cooled and
returned to the heat source.
• Electricity generation requires high temperature resources that can only come
from deep underground. The heat must be carried to the surface by fluid
circulation.
• the geothermal gradient is 25–30 °C per kilometer (km) of depth in most of the
world, and wells would have to be several kilometer deep to permit electricity
generation.
• At present, geothermal wells are rarely more than 3 kilometers (1.9 mi) deep.
Upper estimates of geothermal resources assume wells as deep as 10 kilometers
(6.2 mi). Drilling near this depth is now possible in the petroleum industry,
although it is an expensive process.
• The deepest research well in the world, the Kola super-deep borehole, is 12.3 km
(7.6 mi) deep.
• The technological challenges are to drill wide bores at low cost and to break larger
volumes of rock.
There are three geothermal power plant technologies being used to convert
hydrothermal fluids to electricity. The conversion technologies are

dry steam

Flash

binary cycle

The type of conversion used depends on the state of the fluid (whether
steam or water) and its temperature.
 Dry steam power plants
• Dry steam plants are the simplest
and oldest design.
• it requires a resource that produces
dry steam, but is the most efficient,
with the simplest facilities.
• They directly use geothermal dry steam
of 150°C or greater to turn turbines.
• In these sites, there may be liquid
water present in the reservoir, but no
water is produced to the surface, only
steam.
• The steam goes directly to a turbine,
which drives a generator that produces
Electricity.
• Then the steam is emitted to a
condenser. Here the steam turns back into
a liquid which then cools the water.
It was first used at Lardarello in
Italy in 1904, and is still very
effective.
The first modern geothermal power plants were also built in Lardello, Italy. They were destroyed in World War II
and rebuilt. Today after 90 years, the Lardello field is still producing.

The first geothermal power plants in the U.S. were built in 1962 at The Geysers dry steam field, in
northern California. It is still the largest producing geothermal field in the world .
Flash steam power plants
• Flash steam plants pull deep, high-pressure
hot water into lower-pressure tanks and
use the resulting flashed steam to drive
turbines.
• Flash steam plants use geothermal
reservoirs of water with temperatures greater
than 360 °F (182 °C) or more.
• The hot water flows up through wells in the
ground under its own pressure.
• As it flows upward, the pressure decreases
and some of the hot water boils into steam.
• The steam is then separated from the water
and used to power a turbine/generator.
• Any leftover water and condensed steam
may be injected back into the reservoir, making
this a potentially sustainable resource.
• This is the most common type of plant in
operation today.
Flash technology was invented in New Zealand. Flash steam plants are the
most common, since most reservoirs are hot water reservoirs. This flash
steam plant is in East Mesa, California.
This flash plant is in Japan. In flash plants, both the unused geothermal water and
condensed steam are injected back into the periphery of the reservoir to sustain the
life of the reservoir.
Binary cycle power plants
• A binary cycle power plant is a type of geothermal power plant that allows cooler
geothermal reservoirs to be used than with dry steam and flash steam plants.
• Binary cycle power plants are the most recent development, and can accept fluid
temperatures as low as 57°C.
• With binary cycle geothermal power plants, pumps are used to pump hot water from a
geothermal well, through a heat exchanger, and the cooled water is returned to the
underground reservoir. air and
water
generator vapour
The moderately hot geothermal turbine
water is passed by a secondary
condenser
fluid(butane or pentane iso-butane cooling
hydrocarbon) with a much (vapour) tower
iso-butane
air air
lower boiling point than water.
This causes the secondary fluid heat exchanger water
to flash vaporize, which then
hot brine
drives the turbines.
This is the most common type
of geothermal electricity plant
being constructed today
geothermal zone

production well injection well

(c) binary cycle power plant

This binary power plant, at Wendell-Amadee, California, runs by
itself. If it detects a problem, it automatically radios the operator to
come to the site
 Economics of Geothermal Power Plants
• How much does a typical geothermal energy cost per kilowatt-hour
(kWh)?
– At The Geysers, a geothermal power plant in California, power is sold
at $0.03 to $0.035 per kWh.
– A power plant built today would probably require about $0.05 per
kWh.
– Coal: $0.07-0.14 , Natural Gas: $0.07 -$0.10, Nuclear $0.15+ per kWh

• What does it cost to plan and build a geothermal power plant?

– Geothermal Power plants have higher initial costs for
• land purchasing
• development of system and analysis of area
• Construction of power plant and pipeline
– The initial cost for the field and power plant is around $2500 per
installed kW in the U.S.
– Operating and maintenance costs range from $0.01 to $0.03 per kWh.
 Land Requirements

Power Source Land • Easy to operate

Requirement
(ac/mW) • Open up economy
Geothermal 1-8
• Much more efficient
Nuclear 5-10
use of land
Coal 19

(http://www.geothermal.nau.edu/about/
enviroment.shtml> Northern Arizona
University. 2009 Oct 27)