(ADPnews) – Sep 17, 2010 – It’s been a busy week for the world’s geothermal energy industry and after Wednesday’s start of bidding for GBP 1 million (USD 1.6m/EUR 1.2m) grants in the UK, now the US has stolen the limelight.
On Thursday, the US Department of Energy (DOE) announced USD 20 million (EUR 15m) in awards to seven projects to help the country unearth its geothermal energy potential. The monies have been split up between seven projects to delve into research and development of non-conventional geothermal energy technologies in three areas: low-temperatures fluids, geothermal fluids recovered from oil and gas wells, and highly pressurised geothermal fluids.
The US boasts copious low-temperature resources across the country offering an opportunity for major expansion of its national geothermal fleet. However, most are not hot enough to be harnessed through traditional processes such as dry steam or flash steam power plants. However, low-temperature fluids can be used in binary-cycle power plants, which use the water from geothermal reservoirs to heat another fluid with a much lower boiling point. This fluid is vaporised and used to drive the turbine or generator units.
Announcing the grants yesterday, US energy secretary Steven Chu expressed hopes the new technologies will help temper the high upfront costs of geothermal development, and boost the economic case behind the operational deployment of low-temperature geothermal facilities.
Among the awardees, Modoc Contracting Company has pocketed a USD 2 million grant to create a “cascading” application for low-temperature geothermal resources that will have significant implications for the nearly 1,500 potential low to moderate temperature well sites tucked in western US.
In addition, ElectraTherm will use USD 982,000 in government funding to develop a low-cost, mobile power plant that generates electricity from the heat coproduced in geothermal brine. With an expected output capacity in the 30 to 70 kW range, this power plant can be deployed for small resources in remote locations.
The US leads the world’s league of geothermal power generators with 3.086 MW of capacity in 2010, according to the Geothermal Energy Association (GEA). It is far ahead runner-up the Philippines, which has 1.904 MW under its beltway.
In 2009, the US broke ground on geothermal projects that could result in 7.875 GW of new capacity, up 26% year-on-year, the trade group said.
(GBP 1.0 = USD 1.569/EUR 1.194)
(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.761)
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