mdn2000
Rookie
- Banned
- #1
Thats right, another "peak" thread by the self-proclaimed expert, the Electrical Power Research Institute Analyst.
All the good spots for Geothermal have been exploited, we have reached the peak of Geothermal, I will post some links that provide the fact. To begin the thread this is a nice story.
Geothermal plants find natural steam source running out
All the good spots for Geothermal have been exploited, we have reached the peak of Geothermal, I will post some links that provide the fact. To begin the thread this is a nice story.
Geothermal plants find natural steam source running out
Geothermal plants find natural steam source running out
May 2001
U.S. Water News Online
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. -- Geothermal plants in The Geysers area north of the Napa Valley have tapped steam fields to produce electricity since the 1960s. The 350-degree steam rushes more than 1,500 feet up from the earth, spinning turbines that create a constant flow of electricity.
But mismanagement of the steam fields beneath the hilly northwestern California region that straddles the Sonoma and Lake county lines has led to a large decline of pressure -- and a drop of more than 50 percent in the amount of power the plants produce.
The geothermal decline comes as California already faces short supplies of hydroelectricity from the drought-ridden Pacific Northwest and growing c ompetition for megawatts from other power-starved states.
State power grid managers estimate they're losing about 900 megawatts of geothermal electricity due to the gradual depletion of the steam fields. That's enough power for roughly 675,000 homes.
``They just overproduced. It is a renewable source of power, but it's renewable over geologic time,'' said Katherine Potter, a spokeswoman for Calpine Energy, which owns 19 of the 21 geothermal power plants in The Geysers region, which incidentally has no geysers