Last week, Raser Technologies announced their new fully operational geothermal plant in Beaver County, Utah. The plant will send 10 to 11MW of energy down to Anaheim, CA.
Raser posted a video of enthusiastic workers turning the switch to start sending power to California. Their technology allows the usage of water down to about 60C, well below the 150-180C water temperatures needed for traditional geothermal power generation.
The technology used is a binary system, where the hot water’s heat is transferred into a working fluid that has a much lower boiling point that water. This will flash boil the liquid and convert it to steam, which will turn the turbine and generate electricity. After the steam has passed through the turbine, it will collect in a second tank where cool water is circulated through which cools the steam and returns it to a liquid. From there it is pushed through a pump and put back into the first tank with the hot water.
This system in its current form can generate about 280kW. This facility, the Hatch Generating Plant, has 50 of these units, which will generate 10 to 11MW of geothermal energy for use in California, where renewable energy portfolio standards (RPS) require 20% of the energy used to be renewable by the end of 2010 and 33% by 2020.
Raser has a commitment from Merril Lynch to provide for project financing up to 155MW. This allows Merril Lynch to take advantage of the 10% investment tax credit for geothermal passed under the stimulus package of 2009. They currently have seven additional projects under development in the United States.
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