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:
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