ENERGY FROM VOLCANOES

GROUP 1
WHAT IS GEOTHERMAL ENERGY?

The Earth is believed to be extremely hot from within. This heat

from the Earth’s interior is a source of energy called geothermal
energy. The heat of the Earth warms up water which is trapped
in rock formations beneath its surface.
 HISTORY OF GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
 The first geothermal power plant was built in
Larderello, Italy in 1904 but the utilization of geothermal
energy can be traced back to paleolithic times when
hot springs have been used for cooking, bathing, and
warming of houses. The oldest known spa in China
is a stone pool at the Lisan mountain which was
built during the Qin Dynasty in the 3rd century.

 Archaeological excavations in North America revealed that hot water springs served
as sites for the American Paleo-Indian settlements in the continent. In 1800s, the
European settlers in North America began moving west where they came across hot
water springs which were referred to as “the springs of warmth and vitality” and
allowed them to explore the medicinal properties of these bodies of water.
 In 1807, John Colter took an adventurous and dangerous trek alone and became the first
Euro-American to reach Yellowstone Lake where he witnessed some of the hot springs
now known as the Colter’s Hell in US State of Wyoming.

 In 1847, a streaming valley north of modern-day San Francisco was discovered. It is now
popularly known as “The Geysers” and is currently the largest geothermal production
plant operation in the USA today having 22 geothermal plants drawing steam from more
than 350 wells located in the Mayacamas Mountains.

 The Geothermal Resources Council was created in 1970 to help encourage the
development of geothermal resources in all parts of the world. Two years after, the
Geothermal Energy Association was formed in order to develop geothermal resources
worldwide. As of present, as many as 24 countries utilize geothermal energy to produce
electricity while around 70 countries resort to geothermal heating technology.
HARNESSING GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
 As of 2010, the United States ranked first in terms of geothermal electricity production with
3,086 mW(megawatts) of installed capacity extracted from 77 power plants. As mentioned, the
largest group of geothermal power plants in the world can be found at The Geysers in San
Francisco, California. The second largest group of geothermal power plant is located in the
Philippines with 1,904 mW of capacity online. About 27% of the Philippine electricity
generation can be accounted to geothermal power plants.

 A geothermal system is described schematically as convecting water in the upper crust of the
Earth which in a confined space transfers heat from a heat source to a heat sink usually the free
space. This system is composed of three main elements: a heat source, reservoir, and fluid.
• Heat source – can be either a very high temperature (above 600°C) magmatic intrusion that
has reached a shallow depth of 5-10 km
• Reservoir – volume of hot permeable rocks from which the circulating fluids extract heat.
• Geothermal fluid (water) – carrier that transfers the heat.
 WHAT IS A GEOTHERMAL POWER PLANT
AND HOW DOES IT OPERATE?

 A geothermal power plant is like a

regular power plant except that no fuel is
burned to heat water into the steam. The
steam in a geothermal power plant is
heated by the Earth. Like other power
plants, they use many of the same
components including turbines,
generators, transformers, and other
standard power operating equipment.
 DIFFERENT TYPES OF
GEOTHERMAL POWER PLANTS
 • DRY STEAM POWER PLANT
When a geothermal power plant uses hydrothermal
fluids such as steam in the same form as it comes
from the ground, the plant is called a dry steam
power plant. Here, wells are drilled into a rock
until it reaches the geothermal reservoir. Steam
reaching temperatures of 150°C or more travels
directly to the turbine which drives a generator
that produces electrical energy. This type of power
plants was the first type to be developed in Italy
and is still being used today at The Geysers in
California.
 • FLASH STEAM POWER PLANT
In this type of power plant, water is pumped
from the reservoir under high pressure. The pressure
keeps the water in its liquid state despite the boiling
point temperature of the fluid. Fluid at temperatures
182°C or beyond is pumped under high pressure into
a tank at the surface held at a much lower pressure,
causing some of the fluid to rapidly vaporize, or
“flash”. The vapor then drives a turbine, which drives
a generator. If any liquid remains in the tank, it can be
flashed again in a second tank to extract even more
energy.
 • BINARY CYCLE POWER PLANT
 A binary cycle power plant operates differently from
dry steam and flash steam plants as this type does not use
water or steam to turn the turbine blades for power
generation. Here, geothermal fluid at low to moderate
temperature (approximately 107.2-205°C) is used to heat
a separate fluid that has boiling point lower than that of
water. When this fluid is vaporized, the vapor or flash is
used to turn the turbine blades and subsequently the
generators.
 Binary cycle power plants are closed-loop systems and
virtually nothing (except water vapor) is emitted to the
atmosphere. Resources below 205°C are the most common
geothermal resource, suggesting that this power plant type
will dominate the industry in years to come.
 ADVANTAGES AND
DISADVANTAGES
OF GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
 ADVANTAGES OF GEOTHERMAL ENERGY

•ECO-FRIENDLY. When power stations harness geothermal power in correct manner, they do not produce
by-products which are harmful to the environment. Geothermal plants like wind and solar plants do not burn
fuels and they also help conserve non-renewable fossil fuels. In fact, the Lake Country California is a home
to five geothermal power plants which meet the most stringent government air quality in the United States.

•HIGH RELIABILITY. Geothermal power plants are designed to operate 24 hours a day throughout the
whole year. It resists interruption of power generation since the source of the power is naturally and
abundantly available and weather or natural disasters could not totally alter the plants’ basic operations.

•FLEXIBILITY. Depending on the amount of needed electrical energy, geothermal power plants can be
modified with additional units installed in the area.
• MINIMUM LAND SPACE. The required land for building geothermal power
plants is smaller per megawatt when compared to other types of power plants.
They do not require damming of rivers, forest denudation, no mine shafts, tunnel,
open pits, etc.

• COST EFFECTIVE. Since geothermal energy can be extracted locally, the

government need not to import fuel for geothermal power plants; hence, the economic
benefits remain in the region where the power plants are built and stockholders do
not experience fuel price shocks in its operation.

• HELP DEVELOPING COUNTRIES GROW. With low financial requirements

needed to operate geothermal power plants, projects related to this technology can be
easily extended to developing countries in order for them to uplift their way of living
through distribution of electricity and other technological advances that can come with it.
DISADVANTAGES OF GEOTHERMAL
ENERGY
•LIMITED ACCESSIBILITY. Since naturally occurring vents are not widely available, man
cannot just build a geothermal power plant in some vacant land plot in all regions of Earth.
Potential artificial vents are often too far and too deep in the ground. Most of the sites, where
geothermal energy is produced, are far from markets or cities, where it needs to be consumed.

• FINANCIAL CONSTRAINT. Installation cost of steam power plant is quite high and there is
no guarantee that the amount of energy to be harnessed could really justify the capital and
expenditure and operations costs.

• POSSIBLE POLLUTION. Processes like drilling on Earth's crust may release some
poisonous gas and minerals which could pose harm to the environment.
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING
AND GOD BLESS!