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Overview of Geothermal Energy

Anan Suleiman
Department of Electrical Engineering
Columbia University in the City of New York
New York, United States
as4123@columbia.edu


AbstractAs economies expand, populations
increase, and energy-intensive technologies
spread, our demand for energy is growing
greater. The limited energy resources coupled
with climate change and rising environmental
concerns have driven us to explore alternative,
sustainable, and renewable sources of energy in
the past few decades. Geothermal resources are
abundant, widely available, and renewable and
maybe harnessed at scales ranging from central-
station power plants to residential heating
systems. This paper attempts to describe the
resources and discuss the technology employed
to convert geothermal energy into electricity.
Systems used for geothermal energy production
are outlined and the path for future development
is described. Some drawbacks to the
development of geothermal energy are
presented. Economic factors surrounding the
industry are also described.
Keywords Renewable sources of energy,
geothermal energy.
I. INTRODUCTION
Geothermal energy is the heat from the earth; it is
the thermal energy contained in the rock and fluid in
the earths crust. Solar heating that results from solar
radiation only penetrates about 10 meters
underground, after which both pressure and
temperature increase with depth. The main source of
the underground heat is the radioactive decay of
different isotopes in the core and mantle of the
Earth. Other sources include residual heat from the
formation of the Earth billions of years ago,
gravitational forces pulling more dense materials
toward the center of the earth and hence creating
heat, and latent heat from the solidifying of molten
rock in the core of the Earth [1].
Many countries already tap geothermal energy as
an alternative, reliable, affordable, and sustainable
source of energy. More than 10,715 megawatts
(MW) of electricity are produced by large, utility-
scale geothermal capacity in 24 countries around the
world. These plants provide reliable base-load
power for well over 60 million people, mostly in
developing countries. Additionally, about 28
gigawatts (GW) of direct geothermal heating
capacity is installed for district and space heating,
industrial processes, desalination and agricultural
applications [2].
Developing geothermal energy has many
advantages. Geothermal power is environmentally
friendly, and it reduces dependence on fossil fuels,
and the global warming and public health risks that
result from their use. The most visible byproduct of
geothermal power plant operations is steam plumes.
Geothermal power generation offers essentially zero
fuel cost plus unquestioned status as a greenhouse
gas mitigation option since releases of conventional
air pollutants, greenhouse gases, and other
chemicals generally are low to nonexistent.
Most importantly, unlike variable-output
renewable energy sources such as wind and solar
energy, geothermal plants are dispatchable and
capable of base-load operation: energy production is
not affected by daily or seasonal resource supply
fluctuations. These characteristics avoid many of the
grid integration challenges associated with variable-
output sources like wind and solar energy [3].
To explore the advancement of geothermal
energy technology, a brief general review of
geothermal energy is first presented, followed by
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examining different types of geothermal power
plants, and the future of geothermal energy.
II. GEOTHERMAL ENERGY SOURCE REVIEW
Geothermal energy originates from the Earths
core. Surrounding the Earths core is the mantle,
thought to be partly rock and partly magma. 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. These
plates drift apart and push against each other in a
process called plate tectonics. This process can
cause the crust to become faulted (cracked),
fractured, or thinned, allowing plumes of magma to
rise up into the crust. This magma can reach the
surface and form volcanoes, but most of it remains
underground where it can lie under regions as large
as a mountain range. The magma can take from
5000 to more than 1 million years to cool as its heat
is transferred to surrounding rocks. In areas where
there is underground water, magma can fill rock
fractures and porous rocks. The water is then heated
and can circulate back to the surface to create hot
springs, mud pots, geysers and fumaroles, or it can
become trapped underground, forming deep
geothermal reservoirs. 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
[9].
III. GENERATING ELECTRICITY: GEOTHERMAL
POWER PLANTS
The natural hot water and steam from the earth
are used in geothermal power plants to turn turbine
generators to produce electricity. Unlike fossil fuel
power plants, no fuel is burned. Geothermal power
plants give off water vapor, but have no smoky
emissions. Geothermal power plants are unique in
that they integrate fuel supply and power conversion
technologies. The main components of a geothermal
power plant include the reservoir, wells, surface
piping, turbine-generator train, and condenser and
heat rejection system, along with the controls and
electrical components required for plants operations
and grid interconnection. Generally, belowground
fluid production systems are derived from the oil
and gas industry, and above ground conversion
systems are based on traditional steam-electric
power generation [3]. Different geothermal power
plants are examined below.

Flash Steam Power Plants
Figure 1.0 below presents a schematic of a flash
steam power plant. In a single flash steam
technology, hot pressurized fluid from production
wells is passed into a flash tank (flash tanks are large
vessels allowing a portion of the liquid to expand to
steam), which is held at a much lower pressure than
the fluid, causing the liquid to vaporize (or flash)
rapidly to steam [4,5]. The force of the steam is
employed to spin the turbine generator. The
production well is kept under high pressure in order
to prevent the geothermal fluid from flashing inside
the well. To conserve the water and maintain
reservoir pressure, the hydrothermal resource (which
is in a liquid form) is combined with the condensate
and re-injected underground. Flash steam plant
generators range from 10 MW to 55 MW; a
standardized size of 20 MW is used in several
countries.


Figure 1.0: Schematic of flash steam power plant [3].

Dry Steam Power Plants
Dry steam power plants utilize naturally occurring
resources of pressurized steam; a few geothermal
reservoirs produce mostly steam and very little
water. Production wells are drilled down to the
aquifer, and the super heated, pressurized steam that
is drawn from the production well is piped directly
through a turbine to generate electricity [6]. In a dry
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steam power plant, the low-pressure steam output
from the turbine is routinely run through a
condenser, where the steam is turned back into
liquid form to facilitate reinjection into the reservoir.
Heat is rejected from the condenser via either dry or
wet cooling towers [3]. The Geysers dry steam
reservoir in northern California is the largest and
most known dry steam field in the world, and fuels
nearly half of current U.S. geothermal capacity.
Figure 2.0 below presents a schematic of a dry
steam power plant.


Figure 2.0: Schematic of dry steam power plant [3].

Binary Cycle Power Plants
In a binary cycle power plant, the hydrothermal fluid
from a production well is kept under pressure and
passed through a heat exchanger. As it is passed
through one side of a heat exchanger, its heat is
transferred to a second (binary) liquid, called a
working fluid, in an adjacent separate pipe loop. The
working fluid; which is usually an organic
compound (isobutene or pentane) that has a lower
boiling point than water, is vaporized and expanded
through a specially designed turbine to generate
electricity. It is then condensed back to a liquid and
returned to the heat exchanger. All of the
hydrothermal fluid is reinjected into the ground in a
closed-cycle system. The water and working fluid
are confined to distinct, closed loops during the
whole process. Figure 3.0 below presents a
schematic of a binary cycle power plant. Binary
cycle power plants can achieve higher efficiencies
than flash steam power plants, and since the working
fluid boils and flashes at a lower temperature than
does water, it allows the utilization of lower
temperature resources [3]. This increases the number
of geothermal reservoirs in the world with
electricity-generating potential. Additionally, binary
cycle power plants have virtually no emissions.


Figure 3.0: Schematic of binary cycle power plant [3].

Binary cycles also are the most likely option for
harnessing hot dry rock resources, as well as
geopressured resources found in conjunction with
oil and gas deposits at sites where existing
infrastructure yields favorable economics [3].
Hybrid Power Plants
In a hybrid power plant, geothermal technologies
are integrated with fossil and renewable generation
options. Fuel consumption and emissions of coal,
natural gas, and biomass steam-electric plants can
be reduced if hydrothermal fluid is used for
preheating water or organic working fluids. On the
other hand, we may provide supplemental heat to a
flash steam geothermal plant or a binary cycle
geothermal plant by concentrating solar thermal
fields, gas turbines, and other combustors. This
provides operation flexibility, reduces the risk of
premature reservoir depletion, and augments
capacity during peak periods. Co-located
geothermal and fossil generation plants also may
share well systems to support CO
2
capture and
storage. These concepts, which leverage the
attributes of individual generating options, may
result in widespread exploitation of hot dry rock
resources [3].
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IV. THE FUTURE OF GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS)
Hot dry rock resources are the most abundant and
widely distributed geothermal resource, but
transforming their heat energy into electricity poses
substantial engineering challenges. They are found
in areas offering sufficient heat for power generation
but lacking an in situ water-steam supply. By
employing enhanced geothermal system technology;
an artificial reservoir is created by drilling holes into
a hot rock formation and pumping high-pressure
water through an injection well. This hydraulic
fracturing approach, which is commonly used for
boosting production from oil and gas fields, is used
to increase the formations permeability and allow
for enhanced fluid flow and heat transfer. Hence,
surface water is pumped into the fractured zone,
where it is heated and then delivered to the surface
via a production well [3, 7]. Enhanced geothermal
systems extract heart from hot dry rock resources in
a form suitable for electricity production. Binary
cycle power plants of flash steam power plants may
be used with enhanced geothermal systems,
depending on the temperature of geothermal fluid
extracted from the artificial reservoir created by
hydraulic simulation [3]. Figure 4.0 below presents
how EGS technology is employed to create an
artificial reservoir to access heat energy stored in hot
rock formations lacking a natural water source.

Figure 4.0: An artificial reservoir is created using enhanced
geothermal systems technology to access heat energy stored in
hot rock formations lacking a natural water source.

Down-hole, Closed-loop Heat Exchange Systems
Down-hole, closed-loop heat exchange systems
generate electricity from hot dry rock resources by
employing a binary cycle technique. A working
fluid circulates from the surface, through a heat
exchange installed in hot rock at the bottom of a
well, where the working fluid is heated up, after
which it travels back to the surface, where it delivers
the heat to a second working fluid that drive the
turbine, and hence generates electricity. This
approach represents a promising alternative to EGS
technology, since it is simpler and more controllable
than using injection and production wells and
creating an artificial reservoir to extract heat, bring it
to the surface in the form of a hydrothermal fluid,
and transform it into electricity. Hence, it could
significantly lower development and production
costs, and mitigate the risks associated with air
emissions and materials degradation [3].
V. FURTHER REMARKS ON ENHANCED
GEOTHERMAL SYSTEMS
Small-scale demonstrations in several countries
have established the technical feasibility of EGS
technology. However, there are risks and
uncertainties associated with EGS technology that
constitute major obstacles to commercial
development, such as uncertainties regarding the
resistance of rock formations to fracture, the
resistance of engineered reservoirs to hydrothermal
flow, the potential for thermal drawdown over time,
and water losses [3].
A more effective technique might be using
supercritical carbon dioxide (CO
2
) rather than water
for hydraulic stimulation. Supercritical fluids have
the unique ability to diffuse through solids like a
gas while retaining the properties of a liquid.
Studies suggest that injecting supercritical CO
2
to
fracture underground formations, create an artificial
reservoir, and serve as a hydrothermal fluid may
yield heat extraction rates from hot dry rock
resources 50% greater than those achievable with
water [3]. Hence, this approach promises not only
to reduce the costs and improve the productivity of
geothermal power plants, but it could also allow
storage of CO
2
captured from fossil generating
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facilities and hence help reduce greenhouse gas
emissions associated with these facilities.
VI. DRAWBACKS OF GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
The most significant barriers to near-term
development of all geothermal plants are the high
costs and risks of exploration, resource verification,
and well-field development [3].
VII. CONCLUSION
Due to the steady heat flow from the inner parts
of the earth, geothermal resources can be regarded
as renewable. A geothermal system can in many
cases be recharged as a battery. To date, however,
resource development has been generally restricted
to geologically active areas where reservoirs of hot
water and steam are found within permeable rock
near the Earths surface and economical energy
capture is possible using direct steam or flash steam
technologies. These high temperature generation
options are mature. Recent advances in binary cycle
technologies are opening up access to the more
abundant and widely distributed lower temperature
resource base. Significant progress with EGS
technology is required to exploit the vast quantities
of energy located in hot dry rock formations that are
ubiquitous but available deeper underground [3].
Problems are posed to the production of
geothermal energy by depletion of the geothermal
resources used and induced seismic activity.
However, reinjection techniques can avoid reservoir
depletion, and most production and injection wells
reach depths generally shallower than those
associated with seismic activity.
With nearly 100 years of commercial success,
geothermal power plants have been proven as a
reliable, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly
source of electricity in the United States and around
the world. Development activity is accelerating
globally. Nevertheless, existing renewable portfolio
standard requirements and incentives, recent federal
funding commitments, the expectation that a new
federal climate policy will assign some type of cost
to CO
2
emissions, and other market forces are
driving significant growth in U.S. geothermal power
production [3]. On the whole the future looks bright
for geothermal energy production.
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