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How
Geothermal Power Generation
Works
Photos Courtesy of Geothermal
Education Office, Tiburon,
California
Natural steam from the
production wells power the
turbine generator. The steam is
condensed by evaporation in the
cooling tower and pumped down an
injection well to sustain
production.
Like all steam turbine
generators, the force of steam
is used to spin the turbine
blades which spin the generator,
producing electricity. But with
geothermal energy, no fuels are
burned.
Those white plumes you see at
geothermal power plants are
steam (water vapor). Geothermal
plants do not burn fuel or
produce smoke.
Environmentally Compatible
Geothermal power plants are
clean and are operating
successfully in sensitive
environments.
These geothermal plants are
operating successfully in a
Philippine cornfield, at Mammoth
Lakes, Calif., in the Mojave
Desert of California, and in a
tropical forest, at Mt. Apo,
Philippines.
Three types of Geothermal
Plants
-
Dry Steam
-
Flash
Steam
-
Binary
Cycle
In dry steam power plants, the
steam (and no water) shoots up
the wells and is passed through
a rock catcher (not shown) and
then directly into the turbine.
Dry steam fields are rare.
Flash steam power plants use hot
water reservoirs. In flash
plants, as hot water is released
from the pressure of the deep
reservoir in a flash tank, some
if it flashes to steam.
In a binary cycle power plant
(binary means two), the heat
from geothermal water is used to
vaporize a "working fluid" in
separate adjacent pipes. The
vapor, like steam, powers the
turbine generator.
In the heat exchanger, heat is
transferred from the geothermal
water to a second liquid. The
geothermal water is never
exposed to the air and is
injected back into the periphery
of the reservoir.
Binary technology allows the use
of lower temperature reservoirs,
thus increasing the number of
reservoirs that can be used.
This binary plant is at Soda
Lake, Nevada.
This power plant provides about
25% of the electricity used on
the Big Island of Hawaii. It is
a hybrid binary and flash 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.
Raser's Proprietary
Technology offers 20-35% More
Power Generation
-
More
Power from lower temperature
water
-
Allows
more Output from existing
sites
-
Allows
more lower temperature sites
to become developed
-
Allows
more power generated from
waste heat of industrial
sites
Well-to-Wheels Green Energy
Strategy
-
Proprietary Geothermal
Technology
-
More
Efficient Motors &
Generators
-
Renewable
Energy Tax Credits
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