Like another part of Oregon 30 years ago?
Posted on 01/16/2012 7:27:17 AM PST by thackney
I am no Engineer ( I never ran a train LOL) but I do suspect that drilling holes into a volcano and pouring in water is not a good thing.
Do not mess around with mother nature.
Hence, that is why there is temperature and pressure control on both the geothermal and clean sides of the loops plus a honking big cooling tower, which probably is using condensed steam flash from the geothermal brine for the recirculating cooling water.
Geothermal plants have pretty exotic metalurgies for heat exchangers and other critical components compared to conventional steam turbine power plants, which makes geothermal more a greater capital cost and operating cost in the power generation section relative to a conventional plant of similar capacity. Competitive economics on the whole rest on the costs of the geothermal energy supply (hot brine or steam under pressure) versus using a conventional energy source.
Me too. I grew up near Yellowstone and saw what happens when millions of gallons of water come into contact with very hot rocks: geysers powered by steam.
I think the biggest concern will be contamination of the plumbing by mineral salts as someone has mentioned. I researched geothermal power plants some time back and that was the most common complaint. Many of the minerals are highly corrosive while others just plug up the works.
Thorium based reactors move brine (molten salt) through their plumping pipes, this is as bad or worse than mineral rich fluids coming from a volcano. That’s why thorium reactors never get built, you have to tear them down and rebuild them every year to get rid of the salt corrosion and build up in the pipes. Not cost effective.
Here they should cable suspend a boiler over or on the volcano to heat exchange a liquid inside to power a turbine...makes about as much sense pouring water on volcano.
We have a similar power source here in California
The Geysers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Geysers
Induced Seismicity
Current studies of The Geysers Geothermal Field seismicity have reached the conclusion that deep-well injection in the field produces mostly microseismic events between magnitude 0.5-3.0 on the Richter Scale (M). [8] As can be seen in the figure, the seismicity between magnitude 3.0 and 4.6 (the largest event recorded in The Geysers field which was in 1973) is on the order of a few M4 events per year and on the order of 20 to 30 M3 events per year. Although the M4 events have been increasing, the number of M3 events have been relatively constant since the mid 1980s.
Worldwide, the largest induced seismic event to date linked to Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS) activity was M3.7 [8] in the Cooper Basin of Australia. However, research based on maximum fault lengths indicates that a M5.0 is the largest possible (but not probable) event in the Geysers.
A concern to the residents is not only the amount of seismicity but the magnitude of the largest seismic event likely to occur. Although no one can accurately predict earthquakes, the magnitude of an earthquake is dependent on the surface area that can slip — the length times the depth or width of the fault. Therefore, a large earthquake can occur only on a large fault. [9] There are no mapped faults of large length in The Geysers, so it is extremely unlikely that induced seismicity caused by activities in The Geysers will lead to a large earthquake.
“Just like in a nuclear power plant, you don’t have to take the steam directly from the heat source to the turbine.”
Wrong. This way it’s only handled in a PWR (pressure water reactor). In a BWRs (boiling water reactor) the turbine is feed with primary (radioactive contaminated) steam.
In Iceland they create 27% of their electric power using geothermal energy. Thats more then our nukes do (20%).
What ever could go wrong, you can see near the german/swiss border. Fracking for geothermal power in Basel (switzerland) created three quakes with magnitudes between 3.4 and 5.8 in southern germany and northern switzerland. In a city called staufen they drilled into a gypsum layer beneath the groundwater level. Heavy damages among almost all buildings in town are the result. The gypsum layer got flooded and startet bloating. In some parts of the town the ground rose up to 15 inches.
Most of the US reactors are PWR.
Gee what is the worst that could happen they accidently wake the volcano....
Like another part of Oregon 30 years ago?
Where will they find 24 million gallons of water without destroying some smelt or suckerfish habitat?
You are right, the same standard is not being applied to lefty “clean energy” schemes that are applied to coal, natural gas, and petroleum projects.
As thackney says, I don’t have a problem with it, there may well be an energy gold mine in volcano heat harvesting. But if the left is going to get their panties in a pinch over fracking or burning fossil fuels and the associated “pollution”, then the stuff that comes out of the ground in the volcano heated water should make their heads explode!
28.6 trillion
Couldn’t they just drill holes down to the hot water under the volcano and vent it, possibly relieving pressure rather than causing more?
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