quote:Geothermal heating of houses began around 1930, and today all of Reykjavik is heated by the Reykjavk Energy district heating system. Throughout Iceland, about 90% of the population now enjoy geothermal heating (not all parts of the country have utilisable hot water resources). Iceland has several major geothermal power plants which produce the majority of the country's electricity.
Edited by Buzsaw, : prematuely posted.
BUZSAW B 4 U 2 C Y BUZ SAW. The Immeasurable Present Eternally Extends the Infinite Past And Infinitely Consumes The Eternal Future.
The whole nation of Iceland sits on a geothermal power plant.
...and the big island of Hawaii sits on what, a glacier?
Here is a perfect example of a great natural resource sitting untouchable in a national park. I can't believe that on the entire island of Hawaii (not the island chain), they can't find a spot for even a demonstration power plant? To me, that would be a heck of a tourist draw.
quote: Geothermal power is generated in over 20 countries around the world including Iceland, the United States, Italy, France, Lithuania, New Zealand, Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Russia, the Philippines, Indonesia, the People's Republic of China and Japan.
The entire world resource base of geothermal energy has been calculated in government surveys to be larger than the resource bases of coal, oil, gas and uranium combined.
New facilities can produce electricity from geothermal energy for between 4.5 and 7.3 cents per kilowatt-hour, making it competitive with new conventional fossil fuel-fired power plants.
Iceland is situated in an area with a high concentration of volcanoes, making it an ideal location for generating geothermal energy. Over 26% of Iceland's electrical energy is generated from geothermal sources. In addition, geothermal heating is used to heat 87% of homes in Iceland.Icelanders plan to be 100% non-fossil fuel in the near future.
Even though geothermal energy is technically a finite resource, the typical lifetime for geothermal activity around magmatic centers - from 5,000 years to 1,000,000 years - is so long that it is considered a renewable resource.
Geothermal heating is a method of heating and cooling a building. It takes advantage of the natural stable warmth stored in the earth. Geothermal heating is flame-less, therefore producing no health and safety concerns as associated with fossil fuels.
Today, geothermal energy is utilized in three technology categories: Heating and cooling buildings via geothermal heat pumps that utilize shallow sources Heating structures with direct-use applications Generating electricity through indirect use.
About 2850 megawatts of geothermal generation capacity is available from power plants in the western United States. Geothermal energy generates about 2% of the electricity in Utah, 6% of the electricity in California and almost 10% of the electricity in northern Nevada.
It is by no means a fix for our environment, but don't you think it should be utilized anywhere it can? The oil and gas companies probably wouldn't like it, but hey if Hawaii could produce clean cheap energy for itself then why not? Every green plant that could replace a fossil fuel plant is a step in the right direction.
AbE .. As a state, all islands. Hawaii is a great candidate to produce a sizable amount of power using geothermal I would think.
Edited by fearandloathing, : No reason given.
"No sympathy for the devil; keep that in mind. Buy the ticket, take the ride...and if it occasionally gets a little heavier than what you had in mind, well...maybe chalk it off to forced conscious expansion: Tune in, freak out, get beaten." Hunter S. Thompson
How many power plants do you think could feasibly and safely installed to be fueled by the volcano?
I don't know how many Buz. So, I'd start with a pilot facility somewhere along Route 11 on the Big Island. Probably to the South or Southeast. Surface lava flows are too unpredictable, so I would think a slant drill toward the laval plume would be the way to go. The further Northwest you go, the (relatively) safer it is since the entire movment of the island chain is to the Northwest away from the laval plume.
The facility can be served by Hilo to the Northeast. Hilo, with 40K population, has an international airport, residential and commercial facilities and an extention of the University of Hawaii.
The whole point is to get something started. Show the rest of the nation and the world that we can tap into the natural resources right under our feet and not rely on oil tankers to bring fuel for the power plants.
The whole point is to get something started. Show the rest of the nation and the world that we can tap into the natural resources right under our feet and not rely on oil tankers to bring fuel for the power plants.
Hi Malvern,
I thought you might find this interesting, this looks a lot like what you have in mind.
quote:Geothermal is one of Hawaii’s strongest energy building blocks. Unlike solar and wind power, it is what’s called a firm resourcealways there.
The Puna Geothermal Venture facility is the first and only commercial scale geothermal plant in Hawaii. It produces about 30 MW of power, or 20 percent of the island’s needs. That’s enough electricity for 30,000 residents and visitors. Today PGV saves Hawaii Electric Light Co. (HELCO) more than 144,000 barrels of oil a year.
"No sympathy for the devil; keep that in mind. Buy the ticket, take the ride...and if it occasionally gets a little heavier than what you had in mind, well...maybe chalk it off to forced conscious expansion: Tune in, freak out, get beaten." Hunter S. Thompson
Hawaii is a great candidate to produce a sizable amount of power using geothermal I would think.
I'd take it one step further, and there is increasing support for this. Why do you need gasoline powered cars in Hawaii? It is a perfect test bed for electric propulsion. Recharged by geothermal electric generation? Hells Bells. Why not?
Few facts about world production of geothermal power from a great source on all types of energy.
quote:1. United States 3,086 2. Philippines 1,904 3. Indonesia 1,197 4. Mexico 958 5. Italy 843 6. New Zealand 628 7. Iceland 575 8. Japan 536 9. El Salvador 204 10. Kenya 167 11. Costa Rica 166 12. Nicaragua 88 13. Russia 82 14. Turkey 82 15. Papua New Guinea 56 16. Guatemala 52 17. Portugal 29 18. China 24 19. France 16 20. Ethiopia 7.3 21. Germany 6.6 22. Austria 1.4 23. Australia 1.1 24. Thailand 0.3
Power produced in MW in 2010
I'd take it one step further, and there is increasing support for this. Why do you need gasoline powered cars in Hawaii? It is a perfect test bed for electric propulsion. Recharged by geothermal electric generation? Hells Bells. Why not?
Maybe , if the infrastructure was in place, rental car companies could recive some type of tax credit for switching there fleet over, got to be big business in Hawaii. No sales tax on electric cars bought in Hawaii maybe as an incentive to switch...
Edited by fearandloathing, : No reason given.
"No sympathy for the devil; keep that in mind. Buy the ticket, take the ride...and if it occasionally gets a little heavier than what you had in mind, well...maybe chalk it off to forced conscious expansion: Tune in, freak out, get beaten." Hunter S. Thompson
The Puna Geothermal Venture facility is the first and only commercial scale geothermal plant in Hawaii. It produces about 30 MW of power, or 20 percent of the island’s needs. That’s enough electricity for 30,000 residents and visitors. Today PGV saves Hawaii Electric Light Co. (HELCO) more than 144,000 barrels of oil a year.
Just what I thought. All the power resources you could imagine, but you have to run a l-o-o-o-o-n-g (and expensive) extension cord over to Oahu. That's where political backbone comes in.
It still may come to pass. At least they're going in the right direction.
, and crackpots like this
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