Electricity from hot water
Another good article from Mike’s very informative and interesting blog, this one is about generating electriicity from geothermal energy.
That’s right, geothermal resources (hot fluid and/or gas) can and is being used to generate electricity the world over. Geothermal literally means “heat from the earth.” The first successful geothermal electricity generation installation was in Larderello, Italy in 1904. The largest is the Geysers in Northern California where 21 plants generate around 3% of California’s electricity.
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Perhaps the most interesting and useful of the conversion technologies is the binary plant which uses a series of heat exchangers to transfer the geothermal fluid’s heat energy to a working fluid in a closed system. Typically, the working fluid has a boiling point that is less than that of water (~75C) which is then converted to steam and run through the turbine system, cooled, and recirculated through the system. In this way, the geothermal resource is never in direct contact with the turbine which extends the lifetime and reduces the maintenance associated with the system.
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Of all the renewable technologies, geothermal has the best chance to compete at scale with traditional fossil fuel plants on the basis of cost, predictability, and reliability.
If you are interested in renewable energy technology, check out Mike’s previous postings on energy. Of particular interest are:
Peter, nice to see you’ve joined the blogosphere…thanks for the reference back to the posts - nice to know someone thinks they’re interesting and informative. Looking for Good Thing #2 post.
BTW, I’ve adopted a personal mission of “be a good ancestor.” Trying to align my work and home lives to achieve that goal. Hope all is well with you.
↓ Quote | Posted November 4, 2006, 3:50 pmMike,
Thanks for the subtle kick in the rear about the Good Thing’s posts! Its time thats the limiting factor, rather than ideas … I’ve got a whole slew of things backed up to write about.
I’m planning and article on switching to ethical and sustainable investments, something I’m guessing is fairly close to your heart, from reading beteen the lines of your blog
Not quite as easy as changing a lightbulb though!
I’m very well here thanks. It sounds like the post-Sun world is treating you well also.
Pete.
↓ Quote | Posted November 6, 2006, 12:35 pmlike your blog (and the books too of course)!
↓ Quote | Posted November 13, 2006, 8:40 amRebekah, thanks for the comment, I’m glad you like my blog. You should know that peter-jenkins.com is nothing to do with the far-more-famous-than-I author Peter Jenkins who’s website is www.peterjenkins.com!
↓ Quote | Posted November 21, 2006, 6:11 pmI still like your blog
↓ Quote | Posted November 24, 2006, 3:53 amcan any one use hot water (using solar water heater) to produce electricity?
wt will be the pricing for that?
↓ Quote | Posted January 10, 2008, 9:42 amAnyrag, while it may may be technically possible to extract energy from hot water in the way you suggest I’ve never heard of anyone doing it. I imagine there isn’t enough energy present in hot water from solar heaters to make developing such technology worthwhile.
There already exists Solar Photo Voltaic panels which convert light directly to electricity and while they are expensive I would think they would be more cost effective that the approach you queried.
↓ Quote | Posted January 10, 2008, 6:18 pmPeter, is it possible to use this binary plant technology to generate electricty from the waste heat produced by the likes of grid-based CCGT and coal fired power stations? Would this be cost effective in any sense?
Cheers
Winton
↓ Quote | Posted March 20, 2008, 4:01 pm