I encourage you to check it out:  Top 5 Renewable Energies and cast your vote!

I think that the geothermal lobby is doing a terrible job.  Sure, they’ve got an uphill battle at this point with solar and wind so well branded that they’re almost as well-known and ubiquitous as Coca-Cola. But wait a second, what about us, the public?  We’re part of the problem too. Collectively we wield enormous power. But most of us are so busy that we can’t be bothered to dig into anything too deeply.  But, this is our future we’re talking about.  Energy is the root of all economies. Without it, we can’t make anything. 

My point is that geothermal deserves, at the very least, to be talked about any time renewable energy is discussed. If anything, it has many advantages over both solar and wind. First, of the three renewables, geothermal is the only one that produces base load power (basically it’s always on). The sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow.  Additionally, both solar and wind take up lots of land. 

Here are the facts:
The US is currently the leading producer of electricity from geothermal energy. Surprised? In 2010, geothermal electricity production was 3,086 MW from 77 power plants (or just over 3 Gigawatts). Just to put that into perspective the US installed solar energy capacity is approximately 1.7 Gigawatts (a Gigawatt = 1000 Megawatts).  The US installed wind power capacity is approximately 35 GW.  Yes, wind has more total installed capacity then the other two combined. That’s fine. But quietly, geothermal is a solid producer of clean, renewable energy.

Worldwide, wind is still has the largest installed capacity with approximately 200 GW, followed by solar (~23 GW) and then geothermal (~10.7 GW). The reason this is so is because geothermal is not commercially available in as many locations as solar and wind.

If you’re keeping score, you may be leaning towards wind power as your new favorite. But, hold on, there’s more to it than just installed capacity.  All three are clean, but not all cost the same per MW of electricity produced.  The following information was provided by the US Department of Energy’s Annual Energy Outlook 2010.  These are figures from their levelized energy cost diagram.  This means when all expenses are take into account, how much does each energy source cost/MW (or $/MW hour).  Here are the numbers from most expensive to least:

>Solar Photovoltaic – 396.1
>Solar Thermal – 256.6
>Wind Offshore – 191.1
>Wind – 149.3
>Geothermal – 119.9

So, you can see that of these types of renewable energies, geothermal is the cheapest. Of course, there are other considerations. I realize that there are lots of financial and political details that go into any energy development. Geothermal development takes a long time and this can scare off would be investors and politicians. 

Renewable energy development risks are mitigated by incentives from the government. Currently, Federal tax credits favor wind and solar.  They get a 30% tax credit and geothermal gets 10%.  In the end, investors pony up money for renewable energy projects to make money. Not having equal grants and tax credits creates an obvious disincentive to business people.
 
We need all three. That’s the reality. The carbon-based fuel era is winding down, and even if it weren’t we would still have to consider the environment. Don’t be naive and think that politicians are aware of everything or always have our best interest at heart.  They’re heavily influenced by a desire to stay in office (remember geothermal takes a long time to develop) and by outside pressure. That means lobbyists and public opinion. So, I say let’s get some better geothermal lobbyists. We, the public, also need to be better informed, we can’t afford to be ignorant about our energy future.

Each geothermal energy project is different, so this timeline and details do not necessarily apply to every power plant.  This is true because each geothermal resource is different and the power plant  must match the resource.  The following are the typical stages and details of the work, broken down into five stages:

Exploration and reconnaissance:  geothermal exploration involves data collection and analysis and involves work in the geosciences disciplines including geologists and geochemistry. The work includes geophysical surveys, temperature gradient drilling and GIS (geographic information systems).  The purpose is to determine if there is a commercially exploitable geothermal resource.

Pre-feasibility:  includes additional data collection and analysis as well as more focused exploration based on preliminary findings. Additional activities include the drilling of slim wells (+300 m), and deeper exploration wells, resource evaluation and simple modeling. The pre-feasibility stage may also include environmental impact assessments.  This stage becomes more focused on the most favorable location.

Feasibility:  includes geothermal deep drilling of the first full-sized production well, confirmation wells, resource testing and resource power potential assessment.  This stage also includes preliminary plant design.  The feasibility stage determines the commercial level of the geothermal resource.

Design and Construction:  includes drilling and testing of remaining wells, final geothermal plant design and plant construction. This stage includes power purchase agreements and the securing of financing.

Operations & Maintenance:  includes monitoring systems, resource management, detailed modeling, plant maintenance, drilling of makeup wells.  After commissioning, the geothermal power plant starts to render normal service of providing sustainable energy to the clients. With normal maintenance and responsible reservoir management and utilization, a geothermal power plant can provide renewable energy to the clients for decades.

Geothermal Exploration in Hungary

For the past few years, Mannvit has been working on geothermal development projects in Hungary as a consultant for the Hungarian energy company, Pannergy. Mannvit Engineering most recently discovered a geothermal heat resource near Miskolc, Hungary after months of drilling. This finding of hot water at a depth of approximately 2 kilometers was predicted by tests and analysis done by Mannvit prior to geothermal drilling operations.

The first short-term well tests infer that the well may supply approximately 70 to 90 l/sec. of 115°C hot water, revealing higher flow rates and geothermal resource temperatures higher than expected. This indicates that this location may be capable of producing up to three times more geothermal energy than previously believed. Mannvit was responsible for the interpretation and evaluation of the geoscience data for the borehole site selection, the borehole design and supervision of the drilling operation. Mannvit will continue to evaluate the current drilling and well testing results while expanding their drilling efforts in Miskolc.

Miskolc in East Hungary is one of the largest cities in Hungary with approximately 200,000 inhabitants.  Pannergy’s plans include construction of a geothermal district heating system that would serve up to 15,000 of these Miskolc residents. According to the primary test results which show high temperatures and outstanding yield, there may be fewer wells needed to implement the system. Altogether there would be 2 production wells and 3 injection wells which would reduce the planned capital expenditure by 20 percent.

The implementation of the entire project including the electric power generation facilities will take two years. The first phase of the project, the drilling of an injection well in addition to the production well, is expected to be completed in early 2011. After this the geothermal heat supply may start immediately in Miskolc. The second phase of the project is planned to be completed by the start of the heating season of 2011.

This is the second of the geothermal resources discovered by Mannvit, as a Pannergy consultant, following last fall’s identification and testing of hot water resource near the town Szentlörinc in South West Hungary.  The utility, designed by Mannvit for Pannergy, will be the largest renewable and environmental friendly energy utility in Hungary, and will reduce the burden on current gas heating utilities.

Overall the importance of the geothermal findings in Miskolc can be summarized by a quote from Balázs Bokorovics, Chairman of PannErgy Plc’s Board of Directors: “In our view, the excellent result of the drilling at Miskolc-Mályi provides further evidence what outstanding significance and value the geothermal energy in Hungary has both from business and social perspectives.”

Svartsengi Geothermal Power Plant

There’s a lesser known renewable fuel technology being tested in Iceland and it’s called CO2 to methanol.  The idea is to produce methanol by capturing carbon dioxide from industrial emissions and converting the CO2 into methanol (don’t ask me to explain the technology, I am not a chemist). This methanol can then be blended with different grades of gasoline. 

The idea is to capture and thus ‘eliminate’ CO2 emissions from large scale industrial plants like aluminum smelters and concrete factories as well as from renewable energies like, geothermal and biomass to produce a usable and renewable fuel.  Iceland  is an excellent testing ground for this new technology because they have all of the above industries.

It is important to note that CO2 emissions are not actually eliminated.  Because, carbon dioxide is released when the methanol is burned as fuel.  However, emissions from methanol are low in reactive hydrocarbons (which form smog) and toxic compounds.

Groundbreaking of the first large scale production plant happened last October (2009) at the Svartsengi Geothermal Power Plant (the one connected to the Blue Lagoon in Iceland).  It was named the George Olah Plant, to honor George Olah, a Nobel Laureate in chemistry and author of the Methanol Economy.

The company behind this technology is Carbon Recycling International (CRI), a venture capital-backed Icelandic-American company started in 2006.  Investors include Mannvit Engineering (they are also handling the design and project management of the plant), OLIS (an Icelandic gasoline company), HS ORKA, Landsbanki as well as private investors from America and Iceland. 

Once operational, the plant will produce more than 2 million liters of renewable methanol by the end of 2010 and the company plans to expand production to 4 million by next year.  Going forward, CRI plans to construct a larger plant which will produce up to 50 million liters of methanol per year for export to other European countries.

For more information see the CRI website or the Mannvit website.

So where did the money go?  Here is the breakdown of the type of work being funded by the Recovery act and the number of awarded projects:

Compiled from energy.gov:

I have never even heard of ITER and had no idea that such large-scale research was underway until this morning.  The ITER Fusion Research Collaboration is funded by China, the European Union, Japan, Korea, Russia and the United States.  The report I heard this morning mentioned that it is being funded to the tune of $17 billion and is already over budget and behind schedule.

I am intrigued by the idea.  Of course it would be great if we could produce electricity from clean, abundant nuclear fusion.  But, my first thought is why don’t we invest this kind of money in energy technologies that are quite so far away from commercial viability, or that are proven already?  Or, how about investing $17 billion in energy efficiency? 

This was mentioned in the report.  A senior US official mentioned his skepticism about this project.  His message was something like (I’m paraphrasing):  Sure it could work – someday.  But, why not invest in solar and wind technology which are much farther along in terms of their commercial viability to offset fossil fuel based energy production?  I would add to that list geothermal energy.  Why solar and wind is always mentioned – and not geothermal too – when people discuss renewable energy baffles me.  But I digress.

Again, I don’t want to sound defeatist and cynical about the future of nuclear fusion but, there’s a running joke amongst the cognescenti about harnessing nuclear fusion and, it goes something like “It’s 30 years away. It will always be 30 years away.”  Research into controlled fusion for civilian purposes started in the 1950s and, obviously, continues to this day.  That means we have had 60 years to figure this out.  In these 60 years, we have trusted our leaders to make good choices about energy policy.  I am not sure they have earned this trust.

My take away from all this is:
1.) I think we should be investing big money like this on energy production technologies and efficiencies that are here and now.
2.) The geothermal lobbyists are doing a crappy job.  Solar & wind are not the only viable renewables people!  We can’t have wind farms everywhere.  We can’t have solar everywhere.  We can’t put a geothermal power plant anywhere.  We need a balanced approach for all three.
3.) Nuclear fusion is probably 30 years away…and God knows how many investment dollars away.

The IDDP project is being conducted by a consortium of three Icelandic energy companies:  HS Orka, Landsvirkjun (National Power Company) and Orkuveita Reykjavíkur (Reykjavik Energy).  The project has received funding from the ICDP (International Continental Scientific Drilling Program) as well as Alcoa, Inc. and and StatoilHydro ASA (now Statoil), a Norwegian oil company.  One of the main geothermal drilling consultants for the project is Mannvit Engeering who’s responsible for well design, drilling activities, study of technology for fluid handling and evaluation.

The IDDP website describes the projects as follows: 
“The main purpose of the IDDP project is to find out if it is economically feasible to extract energy and chemicals out of hydrothermal systems at supercritical conditions. To study the supercritical hydrous fluid, an advanced drilling technology needs to be applied and a novel fluid handling and evaluation system designed. The improvement of this basic idea by the IDDP is to drill deep enough into the roots of a conventional high temperature hydrothermal system to produce water at supercritical conditions and bring it to the surface as 400-600°C superheated steam, at subcritical pressures (<220 bar).”

The point of this project, in layman’s terms, is to improve the economics of power production from geothermal fields.  That is, by drilling deeper, to a much hotter part of a geothermal system, and bringing superheated steam (400-600°C) to the surface at pressures that won’t tear a generator to pieces, a power plant will produce more electricity.  This makes investment in geothermal energy much more attractive to investors because it seriously truncates the recovery time of their investment i.e., investors start making money sooner.
 
A typical geothermal well, in Iceland, is drilled to approximately 2.5 km and produces approximately 5 MWe (mega watts of electricity).  By drilling deeper and tapping much higher temperatures, that power output could be 10 fold increase.  It is theorized that tapping a supercritical reservoir above 450 °C would produce approximately 50MWe.  These numbers bring the importance of the IDDP project into focus.

Recently, flow tests began on the first full scale well (IDDP-1) in Iceland at an area called Krafla.  The well is producing 30 kg/s of 330 °C superheated steam (much higher than normal for Iceland) at 16.5 bar-g pressure.  And, the temperature is still rising.  According to the IDDP website, this corresponds to ~20 MWe.   Here’s a link to the YouTube video showing the steam rising from the well.

This project on a macro scale, represents a significant cooperative effort between Iceland and Hungary, both working towards the EU directives on alternative energy and energy security in the EU zone.  On a micro scale, it is a significant move and commitment on behalf of the Hungarian government as well as public investment entities to tap the significant geothermal energy potential in the Pannonian basin – moving the country toward greater energy independence and environmental sustainability.  And, the success of this project, which has almost already been achieved – finding the hot water is the tough part – most likely signals the coming of additional projects in the country as well as in neighboring countries.  Additional development projects will most likely include not only district heating but the production of geothermal power via binary cycle power plants.

It is also a success story for Mannvit Engineering of Iceland who, applying their many decades of experience in geothermal energy, was responsible for all preparatory, engineering and project management including, desktop studies, field research, geothermal exploration and geothermal drilling. 

Mannvit is the largest engineering company in Iceland and has been involved in most of the geothermal power plants there.  Over the last few years, they’ve been strategically growing their operations overseas including in Europe and the US.  The success of this project will most likely be an important stepping stone into other geothermal development projects.

A lot was riding on this for PannErgy, which is a Hungarian geothermal development firm.  Investments can be risky and the success of this project will help stabilize their position and launch them towards additional development in Hungary.

Iceland's Nesjavellir Geothermal Power Plant

Geothermal energy works by tapping into the Earth’s heat which is created far below the surface, in the form of hot molten rock or magma, generated from the action of decaying radioactive materials such as uranium. This energy becomes accessible to us at the boundaries of tectonic plates, which by rubbing together and one sliding under the other, columns of magma break up from the edges pushing them nearer to the surface of the earth forming a geothermal reservoir.

Geothermal energy is produced by tapping steam and or heat directly from the earth.  Because not  every geothermal reservoir is the same, different types of power plant configurations are used to match the geothermal resource.  There are three main types of geothermal power plants:  flash, dry steam and binary.

The type of conversion used depends on the state of the fluid within the reservoir (whether steam or water) and its temperature, roughly classified as high-temperature (<200°C) or low-temperature (>150°C).  So, geothermal engineers need to understand, via geothermal exploration and research, the total nature of a given reservoir to decide which type of geothermal plant configuration is best.

A geothermal reservoirs can be high-temperature and water dominated.  Common examples these systems exist in Iceland, where flash geothermal power plants are the norm.  Or, a geothermal reservoir can be high-temperature and steam dominated, a state that exists at the Geysers, in northern California and the largest complex of geothermal power plants in the world.  Here, the plants are all the dry steam variety.  Binary cycle power plants are used when the geothermal reservoir is low-temperature which, is considered the future of geothermal energy as there are many more low-temperature areas worldwide than high-temperature ones.

The following information was derived s from U.S Department of Energy website:

Flash Steam
Flash steam plants are the most common type of geothermal power generation plants in operation today. They use geothermal hot water at temperatures greater than 360°F (182°C) that is pumped under high pressure to the generation equipment at the surface. Upon reaching the generation equipment, the pressure is suddenly reduced, allowing some of the hot water to convert or “flash” into steam. This steam is then used to power the turbine/generator units to produce electricity. The remaining hot water not flashed into steam, and the water condensed from the steam, is generally pumped back into the reservoir.  Example of a flash steam power plants in operation are the Nesjavellir and Hellisheidi geothermal power plants in Iceland.

Dry Steam
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. An example of a dry steam generation operation is at the Geysers Region in northern California. The Geysers is actually 15 power plants with a net generating capacity of about 725 megawatts of electricity – enough to power 725,000 homes, or a city the size of San Francisco.

Binary Cycle
Binary cycle geothermal power generation plants differ from dry steam and flash steam systems because the water or steam from the geothermal reservoir never comes in contact with the turbine/generator units. In the binary system, the water from the geothermal reservoir is used to heat another “working fluid,” which is vaporized and used to turn the turbine/generator units. The geothermal water and the “working fluid” are each confined in separate circulating systems or “closed loops” and never come in contact with each other. The advantage of the binary cycle plant is that they can operate with lower temperature waters (225°F to 360°F) by using working fluids that have an even lower boiling point than water. They also produce no air emissions.