GEOTHERMAL POWER PLANTS
Geothermal power plants use hydrothermal resources which have two common ingredients: water (hydro) and heat (thermal). Geothermal plants require high temperature (300 to 700 degrees Fahrenheit) hydrothermal resources that may come from either dry steam wells or hot water wells. We can use these resources by drilling wells into the earth and piping the steam or hot water to the surface. Geothermal wells are one to two miles deep.
The United States generates more geothermal electricity than any other country but the amount of electricity it produces is less than 1 percent of electricity produced in United States. Only four states have geothermal power plants:
- California - has 33 geothermal power plants that produce almost 90 percent of the nation's geothermal electricity.
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There are three basic types of geothermal power plants:
- Dry steam plants - use steam piped directly from a geothermal reservoir to turn the generator turbines. The first geothermal power plant was built in 1904 in Tuscany, Italy at a place where natural steam was erupting from the earth.
- Flash steam plants - take high-pressure hot water from deep inside the earth and convert it to steam to drive the generator turbines. When the steam cools, it condenses to water and is injected back into the ground to be used over and over again. Most geothermal power plants are flash plants.
- Binary power plants - transfer the heat from geothermal hot water to another liquid. The heat causes the second liquid to turn to steam which is used to drive a generator turbine.
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