Renewable Energy Technology
Introduction
To
Geothermal Energy
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Geothermal Energy: Introduction
• What is geothermal energy?
• Geothermal energy- energy that comes from
the ground; power extracted from heat stored
in the earth
– Geo: earth
– Thermal: heat
Geothermal Energy:
• The presence of volcanoes, hot springs, and other thermal
phenomena must have led our ancestors to surmise that parts of
the interior of the Earth were hot.
• Geothermal energy is energy derived from the heat of the earth’s
core. It is clean, abundant, and reliable.
• If properly developed, it can offer a renewable and sustainable
energy source.
• There are three primary applications of geothermal energy:
electricity generation, direct use of heat, and ground-source heat
pumps.
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Continued…
• Direct use includes applications such as heating buildings or greenhouses
and drying foods, whereas ground source heat pumps are used to heat and
cool buildings using surface soils as a heat reservoir.
• The earth's core lies almost 4,000 miles beneath the earth's surface. The
double-layered core is made up of very hot molten iron surrounding a solid
iron center. Estimates of the temperature of the core range from 5,000 to
11,000 degrees Fahrenheit (OF).
• Surrounding the earth's core is the mantle, thought to be partly rock and
partly magma. The mantle is about 1,800 miles thick. The outermost layer
of the earth, the insulating crust, is not one continuous sheet of rock, like
the shell of an egg, but is broken into pieces called plates.
• Hent 1miles =1.60934km
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Continued….The earth’s Interior
Geothermal energy is
called a renewable energy
source because the water is
replenished by rainfall, and
the heat is continuously
produced within the earth
by the slow decay of
radioactive particles that
occurs naturally in all
rocks.
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110 MW geothermal turbine.
Where can we find Geothermal Energy?
• The hottest geothermal regions are found along major plate boundaries
where earthquakes and volcanoes are concentrated. Most of the world's
geothermal activity occurs in an area known as the Ring of Fire, which
rims the Pacific Ocean and is bounded by Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan,
the Aleutian Islands, North America, Central America, and South
America.
• The ring of fire can be seen in figure below.
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Continued…
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GEOTHERMAL RESOURCE
• THE LARGEST GEOTHERMAL RESOURCE
• EXPLORATION BEGAN IN 1969 (UNDP & EG)
• ABOUT 16 GEOTHERMAL PROSPECT AREAS
WERE IDENTIFIED IN THE WHOLE Eth.
FOR POWER GENERATION
• MUCH LARGER ARE FOR DIRECT USES
(AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, AGRO-
INDUSTRY ETC)
• (Estimated Geothermal Potential =
>1000MWe)
Enhanced geothermal system
1:Reservoir
2:Pump house
3:Heat exchanger
4:Turbine hall
5:Production well
6:Injection well
7:Hot water to district heating
9:Observation well
10:Crystalline bedrock 13
Advantages/ disadvantages
Geothermal energy has many advantages. Geothermal
energy neither produces any pollution, nor does it add to the
greenhouse effect. Besides, it does not need any fuel.
Geothermal energy impacts soil very minimally since the
cooler water is re-injected into the ground. But geothermal
energy has some disadvantages. Unfortunately, there aren’t
many places where you can set up a geothermal power
station. Besides, hot rocks of a certain kind are needed that
can go down a particular depth where they can be drilled. 14
Geothermal Energy Generation
Direct Electrical
• Small scale uses • Dry steam
• Heating homes • Flash steam
• Hot springs • Binary cycle
• Greenhouse heating
• Food dehydration
plants
• Agriculture
– Crop drying
– Milk pasteurization
Examples of Renewable Energy--Geothermal
Energy
• electricity generated from
geothermal energy.
• Technologies in use include:
dry steam power plants,
flash steam power plants and
binary cycle power plants
There are several different main types of geothermal plants:
1. Dry steam
2. Flash steam
3. Binary cycle
These types of geothermal power plants all have in common is that they use
steam turbines to generate electricity. This approach is very similar to other
thermal power plants using other sources of energy than geothermal.
Water or working fluid is heated (or used directly incase of geothermal dry steam
power plants), and then sent through a steam turbine where the thermal energy
(heat) is converted to electricity with a generator through a phenomenon called
electromagnetic induction. The next step in the cycle is cooling the fluid and
sending it back to the heat source.
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Dry Steam Plants :
Power plants using dry steam systems
were the first type of geothermal power
generation plants built. They use steam
from the geothermal reservoir as it comes
from wells and route it directly Through
turbine/generator units to produce
electricity
Uses Steam From Geothermal
Reservoir Directly
Only Requires Removal of Rock
Fragments From Steam Prior to Entering
Turbines
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Only Emissions Are Water Vapor
Continue…
• In a dry steam plant like those at The Geysers in California, steam directly from
the geothermal reservoir runs the turbines that power the generator, and no
separation is necessary because wells only produce steam. Figure shows a flash
and dry steam plant.
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Flashed Steam Plants:
Geothermal flash steam power plants
uses water at temperatures of at least
182°C (360°F).
The term flash steam refers the process
where high-pressure hot water is flashed
(vaporized) into steam inside a flash tank
by lowering the pressure. This steam is then
used to drive around turbines.
To conserve water and maintain the
pressure in the reservoir, the steam is
condensed into water and injected back into
the reservoir to be reheated.
Flash steam is today’s most common
power plant type. The first geothermal
power plant that used flash steam
technology was the Wairakei Power
station in New Zealand, which was built
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already in 1958:
Flash Steam Plants Cont’d
• Steamboat Springs,
NV Plant
• Initial Conditions –
Liquid H2O @
240°C, Pressures of
24 MPa (hydrostatic
pressure)
3. Binary Power Plant
The binary cycle power plant has one major
advantage over flash steam and dry steam power
plants: The water-temperature can be as low as
57°C (135°F).
By using a working fluid (binary fluid-
isobutane or isopentane-) with a much lower
boiling temperature than water, thermal energy
in the reservoir water flashes the working fluid
into steam, which then is used to generate
electricity with the turbine.
The water coming from the geothermal
reservoirs through the production wells is never
in direct contact with the working fluid.
After the some of its thermal energy is
transferred to the working fluid with a heat
exchanger, the water is sent back to the reservoir
through the injection wells where it regains it’s 1.Water
thermal energy. 2.Isobutane steam or vapour
3. Isobutane liquid 22
These power plants have a thermal efficiency rate of only 10-13%. However,
geothermal binary cycle power plants enable us, through lowering temperature
requirements, to harness geothermal energy from reservoirs that with a dry- or a flash
steam power plant wouldn’t be possible.
First successful geothermal binary cycle project took place in Russia in 1967
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Region Proven (Mwe) Possible Total (MWe)
(MWe)
Aluto Langano 30 30 60
Tendaho 10 1000 1010
Total 40 1000 1070
POTENTIALLY PRODUCTIVE WELLS FOR
POWER
PRODUCTION ARE IDENTIFIED ONLY IN 2
AREAS
ALUTO-LANGANO
TENDAHO
TENDAHO
TENDAHO
ALUTO-LANGANO
ALUTO-LANGAO
The pipe line projects in order of priority.
The selection and prioritization of these prospects is considered based on:
(i) the level of geothermal study, so far conducted,
(ii) (ii) their strategic locations (proximity to the existing grid) and
(iii) (iii) population density.
Expected output of the proposed pipeline projects is summarized below:
No. Prospect Area Estimated output. Estimated
time
1 Aluto-Langano Geothermal Field » 75 MWe 5-6 Years
2 Tendaho Geothermal field » 100 MWe 7-8 Years
3 Corbetti Geothermal Field » 75 MWe 7-8 Year
4 Abaya Geothermal Prospect Are » 100 MWe 7-8 Years
5 Tulu Moye Geothermal Field » 40MWe 7-8 Year
6 Dofan Fantale Geothermal Field » 50 MWe 7-8 Years
