The heat would then flow up through the well, funneling superheated, high-pressure steam for months at temperatures of over 450°C – a world record. In comparison, the UK geothermal division averages 60-80°C.
The magma-heated steam was measured to be capable of generating 36MW of electrical power. While relatively modest compared to a typical 660MW coal-fired power station, this is considerably more than the 1-3MW of an average wind turbine, and more than half of the Krafla plant’s current 60MW output.
What's even more interesting is that with even deeper boreholes, the IDDP are looking for a further prize: supercritical water; at high temperature and under high pressure deep underground, the water enters a supercritical state, when it is neither gas nor liquid. In this state it carries far more energy and, harnessed correctly, this can increase the power output above ground tenfold, from 5MW to 50MW.
A second hole, IDDP-2 will be sunk in Reykjanes later this year, for yet more energy output. This could definitely be the new sustainable energy that our world will need immensely.
N0S Themes
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- Science is Based on Collaborative
Link: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/icelandic-drilling-project-opens-door-to-volcano-powered-electricity/
Wow! That's really a cool article. I never thought of using volcano's as geothermal energy. It sure seems sustainable enough. A report that MIT sent in to the Department of Energy says that, " Two percent of the heat six or more miles below the ground could provide 2,500 times as much energy as the country currently uses." Now that could last a long time! Energy Digital, the global energy portal, has many different articles about this same topic. Here following us just one of them: http://www.energydigital.com/renewable_energy/are-volcanos-the-new-source-of-geothermal-energy. I hope this assists you in further learning about the sustainability of volcanos as an energy source.
ReplyDeleteThis article was very interesting! Using volcanoes as energy could solve some of our energy problems for the future. Burning fossil fuels is dangerous for the environment, thus this is a good solution. However, are there environment side effects with geothermal energy? I also found an interesting article that talks about how most of the Earth's geothermal energy has yet to be discovered and withdrawn power from. The scientist also says that up to 25% of the US' energy needs can be satisfied with geothermal energy.
ReplyDeleteHere's the link:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/3345616/Harness-volcano-power-energy-experts-say.html
This is a great article. Along with iceland getting energy from the geothermal pockets, there are talks of connecting this energy to the U.K. and Europe. This would combine the new geothermal energy with the existing wind and wave power of northern europe, and the solar energy of southern Europe and north Africa.The proposed "Supergrid" would greatly reduce Europe's dependence on fossil fuels. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/apr/11/iceland-volcano-green-power
ReplyDeleteAn interesting idea that this article provoked for me was how they manage to keep the massive pressure under control, and if something were to fail, the pressure would have to be released through the resulting hole, potentially leading to a cave-in of the volcano without the pressure keeping it stable, costing millions of dollars and dozens of lives in the process. However, could this method also be useful in "defusing" potentially dangerous volcanoes, especially the super-volcano that is Yellowstone National Park? Geologists predict that Yellowstone has been expected to erupt for a few thousand years now, and every previous eruption has led to a global mass extinction. This could be both extremely dangerous, and extremely lucrative at the same time.
ReplyDeleteThat's very interesting. I think that if we are able to safely and economically use volcano's as a sustainable source of energy it would be very smart to use. "engineers estimated they could use the well to create a power plant capable of generating 36 megawatts of electricity. That’s 20 times less than what a typical coal-fired power plant can generate" http://qz.com/172642/why-volcanoes-are-the-energy-source-of-the-future/ this source reaffirms Ben's post that this is a potential source of energy.
ReplyDeleteI found this article very intriguing. It's interesting to think about using the Earth's volcanoes as an energy source. They would be very reliable and very sustainable, as they won't go away any time soon. Although, one problem I see would be the lack of volcanoes in many places around the world. I know that Iceland has already taken advantage of geothermal energy, particularly in space heating, which you can read more about here http://www.nea.is/geothermal/. It would be great to get more people to use geothermal energy as a good alternative to fossil fuel burning.
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