How a Geothermal Plant Works

[circusboy90210]

would be better to just drill deeper and use a transfer medium like molten salt in a closed loop to reclaim heat from the magma heat source directly and then transfer the heat energy to stealium or distilled water in a secondary closed loop that powers a steam turbine and generator. using water directly over complicates and is inefficient.

[HahoFreak]

fett nice

[WelcometomydojoTC]

The thing is, the crust can be 100 miles thick.

[nitronovice]

i may be missing something here, but wouldn't it be more efficient if the turbine/ generator were closer to the crystallizers so that the steam has less distance to travel, and thus less condensation within the pipes?

[Polydynamix]

@nitronovice More so for the lower pressure, but it will be traveling very quickly and it will be under enough pressure that it won't change states. All of New York City is on the same steam system, and that stuff travels probably 200 or so miles in a grid formation all over the city.

[nitronovice]

@Polydynamix Cool! Thanks for the info

[pokezekrom7]

thanks a lot !!!! u helped a lot!

[kuzyasexy]

Very helpfull for school i wish my teacher was like that!!!!!!!!

[HLC778]

Cool!

[ThinkStage]

Very cool

To see more innovative videos like this or want to share your own ideas visit ThinkStageDOTcom

[Thermospecialist]

Very good video, the best I ever saw explaining what geothermal energy is and how it works. I therefore placed it on my webpage for that purpose:

draaisma.net/alternative_engin­eering/geothermal_energy_techn­ology.html

Visit it and read about my work on a new and far more effective technology to generate electricity from geothermal heat.

[SereneiBE]

I like solar wind nuclear, but geothermal IMO seems most promising.

[snowwolf23]

sovateri .com

[jackysew262]

May i know what software are u using to do this?

[davepamn]

What is the average cost per kilowatt hour from geothermal power? Is it competitive with hydro and nuclear power electricity generation?

[vdbniels]

@davepamn It's cheaper. approxx 85 dollar per MWHr. Nuclear is approxx 95 dollar per MWHr. Hydro is much more expensive.

[davepamn]

What is the current technology for going deeper to create a perpetual steam field? Are there significant risk for a steam field to go dry?

[vdbniels]

@davepamn In order to increase permeabilty, water could be injected into the field to crack the rock. This technology is already in use in natural gas production. It significantly increases production-capacity.

The video pA27aEamWzY gives more insight in this.

[davepamn]

How often do steam fields dry up? Has this been a problem in the past?

[Partyffs]

@davepamn never and nope.

[Partyffs]

@davepamn It's cheaper ;)

[iansoreta]

very awesome animation

[TalksWithDirt]

If it were up to me, I'd put coals plants at geothermal locations then fool the people into thinking they were geo-thermal plants and not coal.

[nickoswoos]

@TalksWithDirt i have no idea what the point of that would be? in addition, it would be hard to full as the gaseous emissions are visually very different, lol.

[TalksWithDirt]

@nickoswoos No point, it was meant to be humorous as for some reason right wingers seem to take moral offense at a baseline power source that is not coal or nuclear.

[nickoswoos]

@TalksWithDirt lol! yer, probably because all there stock is invested in those kind of power sources :P

[TalksWithDirt]

@nickoswoos That makes sense. But why not geo-thermal? I'll bet with a bit more engineering development it'd be real profitable. You don't even have to pay for fuel! You use the same turbine and generator as a coal plant, smae plumbing. Even the scrubbers are the same. I can see some additional cost of putting the spent steam in the form of water back into the ground so you don't run the vent dry.

[nickoswoos]

@TalksWithDirt yer, no doubt the geothermal energy source is worth investing it for the coming years. Things is investment is non renewables goes further than the energy industry. coal - smelting with iron to form steel for example, a huge industry given everything that stands these days has a steel component. Also, while there is a lack of any other recourse these days, non renewables will continue to rise in value as they become more scarce. but im a geologist not an economist :P

[cubertio]

we can look forward to not using this ever

[BlackNeon9]

man they should be using this everywhere!!

[harshness18]

nicely done :)

[m3talkitten]

Could they do this in Japan?

[Sohave]

@m3talkitten Shure Japan has a lot of geothermal activity which curently are only beeing used in natural baths. So does Iceland where geothermal delviers the majority of their power. There is the chalange of japans earth quakes but that applies to all infrastructure, and the genneral challange that we need to develop better methods of finding the right places to drill. but hay we have done that to oil drilling so why not here :-)

[MannyHMo]

@m3talkitten

From what I read, the Japanese people have quite a reverence for hot springs which of course is heated by the earth. The fear is that the exploration and utilization of geothermal energy will somehow compete and destroy these beautiful springs. This reasoning made them opt for nuclear power. I truly wonder why not geothermal when Japan has plenty of this resource. Now geothermal exploration is being seriously studied from exploration in Japan.

[HongKongKanto]

this works just like a nuclear plant only that mother earth heats the water

[bthegood]

Correction. I mean $500,000,000,000 spent on "defense".

[bthegood]

I have an idea. Let's take the $500,000,000 U.S. tax money a year spent on defense and build these plants. Then drive around in electric cars.

[bbphnix]

ALL plants (except solar ones that use photo-voltaic cells) use the principle of using steam pressure (or running water) to move a turbine that is connected to a generator;

Do you realize how much we owe to Faraday. the guy that first came up with the law of induction - turning magnetic flux into electricity?

Seriously, without that I can't imagine where we would be right now; that guy should be worshiped as our new god, LOL

[RelentlessJon]

great explanation thanks

[pillowbugg]

That looks insanely expensive!

[ALomovica]

@pillowbugg Actualy its cheap when you calculate the fact that you dont buy and transport coal, and this is basicaly the same as a coal plant the only diference is you dont use fuel to heat the water its already hot you just grill for it. The driling is expensive sure but during the long run it becomes cheaper

[ricklicks42]

Two HUGE points of this are 1) Free distilled water! for drinking and irrigation, and 2) Try this with seawater! Desalinization into fresh water! And what to do with the large quantities if salt? Incapsulate it and make building blocks! THIS could power the Earth for Free and Forever! As long as no one wants to make a profit off of it!

[OfCourseImNormal]

I wonder if a Machinist Mate could work at one of those places

[ravinrink]

GOOD JOB BUY MORE FLOW TEES,OVERLAYS,

[bobstevefrank123]

Very interesting. Along with dams, this will be the future of energy. But it will only happen when we are forced to when there is no more coal.

[tazznrific]

sabben-friicken-studen-crusdde­n!!!!! Integrated science! :[

[walter0bz]

we have to use renewables but anyone who thinks they can match the oil age is deluding themselves.

population control is the only answer.

[milofonbil]

No, why don't you tell us. It can't be nearly as expensive as a 8 1/2 Billion dollar nuclear power plant.

[Engineer9736]

There is no 'free power', all the power you drain from something, is logically removed from the source. If there where no other power plants than just geothermal ones, you would probably get issues like the Earth that's cooling down faster. If you put in all the rivers on Earth dams, probably you will get some weather changes, because you're partly blocking some natural energy flows.

But it's way longer durable than using coal or gas probably.

[pressureGM]

@Engineer9736 The Earth's core is molten due to gravity acting on the mass of the Earth on itself. Pressure causes our iron core to produce heat energy. It is a renewable energy source and will never be depleted as long as the earth has mass and the force of gravity exists. The earth isn't cooling off for another several billion years. Jupiters fully ice covered moon Ganymede has a molten core. We wouldn't need any other source of energy. Period. Look up The Venus Project.

[AquariaNetTV]

We'll never have this, because the oil companies will lose profits, maybe their business..Fossil fuels is the way to go for filthy profits..As the church lady says " isn't that special? ".

[charleshoskinson]

@AquariaNetTV Are you fucking crazy or just plain stupid? We install hundreds of megawatts of geothermal power every year. Google Ormat

[pressureGM]

@AquariaNetTV We've hit peak oil. There is no new oil to find. Fossil fuel production has been in single digit decline for the past decade. Fossil fuels will run out. That is a fact. We will move away from fossil fuels regardless of what the oil companies want because there is no more. Look up Peak Oil, or Post Carbon.

[edouardschneiders0]

perfect, thank you

[ashkethup14]

panget si digao..

[tzmsd]

As advocated by the Zeitgeist Movement.

[broly579]

ok what provides the pressure for the injection well to enject the water back into the earth? wouldnt the pressure from the geothermal liquid push back the cool water?

[Roan1414]

@broly579 you know I thought the same thing

[ambersontheduck]

This was very instructive

[gmlaxmikant27]

a gud prototype of geothermal power plant

[25brbmyt]

What a wonderful Job done on this Documentary. To Explain the Operation Makes it 50% more educational to Watch - than just having words with music. Thankyou

[tunnis7us]

4000 years with this alone acording to mit study from 2006 =)

[boxa888]

EVERYONE GOOGLE"INCREASING HUMAN ENERGY"BY NIKOLA TESLA!he gives all of the energy resources that you can use without ruining the environment and how to build them! he wrote this article for people who care like you greenpeace! this was 100 yrs ago! the wireless power tower sends a form or radiowave that allows for industrial running of machinery and emits no pollution!please i put up a ton of information to show that it works, i also demonstrate a 20 ft wireless transmission with a small model!

[The24thDane]

@boxa888 Ah, you mean Wardenclyffe Tower. The only reason it was stopped was because his investor J.P. Morgan didn't think it was profitable. Capitalism is what ultimately destroyed Tesla. Just thought I'd share that interesting piece of information with you.

[daltonagre]

Here in Brazil, there's no geothermal power plants.

[youtubasoarus]

And the reason we're not all using this is because...?

[Clavera]

@youtubasoarus the monetary system.

[charleshoskinson]

@youtubasoarus Because the areas that yield good geothermal are limited. Google geothermal gradient.

[pressureGM]

@youtubasoarus "And the reason we're not all using this is because...?" oil companies don't want us to.

[nerdelicious5]

that's really cool

[IMdigitalworks]

Very interesting. We have to use renewable energy.

[phazze]

aside from "free" energy systems, this is probably the most usable form of energy we have to get rid of oil dependance...

[xoSNOWDROPox]

Wow thx i don't know about other people - but this really helped me with my project thanks heaps

[ry4nkidz]

What kind of project are you working on?

college?

[janouy1234]

Question!!

How much Energy will this produce?

In other words what will it replace?

and how big of a city will it be able to support?

I would be grateful for a reply.

Thanks

[thesickleone]

It depends on the city location, not only its size. And it will replace a lot of carbon (coal, fuel, gas, etc) that you need to warm and boil water. And if you use this electricity for cars or trains it will also replace these CO2 emissions. Or you can use its heat directly to warm houses during winter instead of nafta, (this is much cheaper for houseowners but it is also a waste of a great potential because it only uses surface heat)

[kotsilio]

hello janouy 1234 i am alex and i'm from greece

my country has enormous amounts of geothermal energy(unused even today)

if you asking globaly how much energy then the answer is about 500% of the world's energy demand

NO IT'S NOT A MISSPELLING YOU READ CORRECTLY 500% ( AT LEAST )

[Sondredb]

Im not an expert, but i heard in a TV-program that it could replcace a Nuclea-Powerplant.

[martinarse]

geo thermal energy at this stage has enough energy under the earths crust to energize the whole planet for a million years.i believe that is the facts .also look up zeitgeist 2 they have a section on geothermal energy with all the info

[boxa888]

@martinarse yep! also if u drill down like 2-3 miles beneath the surface there is energy obtainable anywhere on land or sea for energy.

[pressureGM]

@janouy1234 A 2006 MIT report on geothermal energy found that 13,000 zettajoules of power are currently available in the earth, with the possibility of 2000 zettajoules being easily tap-able with improved technology. The total energy consumption of all the countries on the planet is about half of a zettajoule a year = 4000 years of planetary power. And when we understand that the earth’s heat generation is constantly renewed, this energy is really limitless and could be used forever.

[janouy1234]

@pressureGM Then why isn't the government financially backing projects like these!?!?!

[DR18111983]

@janouy1234 Energy abundance is a profit killer. All energy corporations make money off of the supposed scarcety of energy. If energy was abundant, nobody would (have to) pay for it.

That is true for many other products as well. If products last too long, you would have to buy less of them, hence less profit for the corporations.

[DR18111983]

@janouy1234 Also, many products are as expensive as they are because of the high production costs generated by expensive energy. If there was (close to) free energy, prices of all kinds of industries would have to fall drastically.

So, you see, corporations have massive incentives to keep energy scarce and expensive for profit generation, and since corporations are the ones financing our politicians and parties (and therefore have a say in their agendas), progress is very slow.

[MaTuraTemMetum]

@DR18111983 Fuck the money! Think about the future! Without energy, there wont be any man living on this planet. And without man there wont be money!

[J4KEH4M]

very interesting, this help me with my project on energy development 4 science!

[xNoobKira]

hurrah this ehlped me with my science project!

[NewSuperHelioBros]

me2

[FineLineVideos]

can anyone tell me what software i can use to create some animation similar to this?

[maa105]

I think geothermal power will inevitably cause the planet core to get cooler hence causing world wide crisis as the magma is what makes the magnetic field which protects us from the sun and if that is gone or effected, well good knowing mankind. I think this energy is not safe and shall be not used, solar wind and wave (ocean) energy is much better

[thesickleone]

@maa105 Have you ever heard of a winter cooling a volcano? The amount of energy we can use is not even close to the geothermal energy under your feet.

[maa105]

@thesickleone well I bet you thats what they said when they started burning fossil fuel at the industrial revolution, or when cars started burning gas, I mean how can we possibly pollute the atmosphere or the ocean and well look where we are now

[thesickleone]

It's not the same. Chemical pollution is fast and progressive in fluids like oceans, rivers or the atmosphere. Heat pollution in solids is very small and one-directioned. The acuipher under the power plant might be damaged by water pollution, but not by the power plant because it's a water closed system.

[essayreader2009]

Not entirely. Geothermal actually heats less than nuclear energy, but a LOT more than solar and water energy combined. However, it does require time for the Earth to refresh the source. It's renewable, but we need it to renew to use it. :)

[maa105]

I hope you guys are right because it would be a shame for mankind to screw the planet even more, I mean we already screwed the air and water whats next the planet's core/soul... I hope not

[J4KEH4M]

1. GLOBAL WARMING IS FAKE!!!!!

but yeh, we have knda damged the environment more than we should.

2. at that level of pressure & heat & raidoactivity, all matter will want to tuern inot its most stable form: iron, the stuff the inner core is made of.

[J4KEH4M]

Relax, the core is highly radioactive, & will remain hot, 4 trillions of years, warming the magma.

[gokoturko]

one of the most clean method for energy product. but we need a perfect underground resarvuar

[chaz706]

You can use a capped reservoir as opposed to an open loop system. This would offer for better water management and prevent pollution... but I can't imagine the setup costs.

I've always been a fan of geothermal energy. The earth's tidal forces would be an excellent source of power.

Imagine how powerful this would be if we could drill deeper for a reasonable cost. We could harvest anywhere if you can drill deep enough. Imagine how much power the earth's heat can give us!

[charleshoskinson]

@chaz706 Google Laser drilling and look at Argonne

[tinocoloco]

i live in a city where we are using this kind of process since a long time ago, is very nice to hest the water with the magma but we are contaminating the agricultural lands near to the geothermal plant, anyway is better than burn a lot of oil, the best green energy is in the sun, wind and the rivers the goverments need to invest much more in the investigation of this kind of energies and do this process more eficient and cheap for the consumer. At the end we will help the earth a lot.

[eduardonogales]

Does anyone has any idea about which software app can I use to create videos like these?

[thesickleone]

Try with Solidworks. I have friends who have done very interesting animation-stuff like this with it, but a little more simple because we're engineers, not CGI experts.

[speakersinmytrunk]

what if theres no more magma left D:

[gkyy3c]

it does not finish ............

[NeoAltPower]

If they go Geothermal, they probably will still make us pay for power!!!

[conoba]

Charging money for providing a complicated infrastructure that costs a shit-ton to operate and build?

Of course they should never do that, and provide all their work to you for no money and go bankrupt in 10.52 nanoseconds.

Wellcome to economics 101, idiot.

[charleshoskinson]

@NeoAltPower Do you have any idea how much it costs to build a geothermal plant?

[LiVe7LaUgH1lOvE1]

thanks this helped a lot with a project i was doing!

[xgenra]

geothermal sounds perfect,

but what are the problems?

[GoukiTehPwner]

Location, they take up a lot of space, a lot of money goes into building them...that's all I can think of right now.

[thedaddy9000]

they're only practical in certain locations. money and space are hardly issues compared to the fact that ya just can't build em anywhere you damn well please.

[Darkwizzrobe]

There are a limited locations where you can build them.

[Spastb00n]

There are only a few locations, where these superheated reservoirs existn aturally, to be tapped and used for energy production practically.

Currently some projects are working on creating artificial reservoirs, by pumping water down there, but todays drilling technology is not entirely up to the task.

Additionally there are also some drawbacks, seeing how small earthquakes near these atificial reservoirs have been tracked, and are suspected to be an effect resulting from these experiments.

[OsamaBinForgotten2]

The weight of the surface rock=gravity heats the water?

[jaggo84]

No, that generates a lot of pressure but not too much heat.

Most of the heat comes from nuclear reactions at the interior of the Earth.

[futuramark]

nice presentation ;)

[NebPWN]

i turned off the sound and still understood it~ way to go green

[athernoo]

is that so? and ur point is?

[swiftdragoness88]

i thin i'll the sound all this too much for my brain especially after work . . . . .

geothermal is so cool! however it confusing like Nuclear energy (call me wuss but i am scare of nuclear energy)

[vman996]

have a look at The Venus Project.

[athernoo]

WHY?

[athernoo]

why

[swiftdragoness88]

erm excuse me what is the venus project?

[vman996]

Watch Zeitgeist Addemendum, The Venus project is part of that film.

Its a way of living in Harmony we eachother and the Planet.

Just google it.

Its very very good.

[charleshoskinson]

@swiftdragoness88 neo communism

[WERIEVENTS]

werievents

[wwwdotLPdotorg]

Global warming is a fake but renewable energy is the smart way to go anyways. Thanks for the video.

[ernestamundo12]

geothermal is really awesome, i wish we used it more...

[SusanPetty73]

It actually does make a difference. Superheated means that the fluid is above the saturation temperature for the pressure which makes it all steam. The fluid at CalEnergy's plants is a mixture of steam and liquid for the most part and is only superheated in part of the field.

[SusanPetty73]

I wish they wouldn't say superheated fluid. There are only a few places where the fluid is actually superheated, ie, at a higher temperature than expected for the pressure. And magma isn't necessary for geothermal energy. There are plenty of resources that rely only on the fact that the deeper you go the hotter it gets.

[debunker1905]

Isn't it the same? Superheated or just heated... In this case it doesn't make difference.

The fluid needs to be at least higher than the minimum temperature to create the necessary pressure.

By the way, the water is not in contact with the magma as it shows in the video. The magma heats the rocks above it, which will heat the water.

[Shivanandan369]

Great Video....

The best video I have ever seen on renewable energy....

Great Work.....

[hmoob7]

Seriously. I am currently studying alternative energy and it seems that geothermal is the best way to go. It, alone, will be able to power the world for thousands of years.

[zets13]

Great Idea , nice video

[guyanaman56]

nice vid

[goldenchocolate]

nice video, really nice, clear and simple explanations :)

[kangster323]

this is one of the best tutorials i've seen on geothermal energy. it's helpful for the brochure i hav to write in science. thnx for posting.

[Zanskar3]

i have to give in a geothermal energy report =P X=( i hate our teacher

[intheshitter]

Wouldnt it make more sense to build one of these near a river or something ?

[SackSean]

THANK YOU!

Can use this in my geothermal presentation for school next monday.

But i think theres a time limit ooo

[sheethalswaroopsoora]

you know download this video please reply

[SackSean]

If your asking me how to download it i am sue theres a way to do it if you search 'download youtube videos' on google

In the end i never bothered using it on my powerpoint but good luck trying to down it.

[schaefershund]

get realplayer to download videos from youtube.

[sandman2425]

actually...replace the word "youtube" with "voobys" on the website address at the top of ur browser

[milofonbil]

6)Does not come with an international scale worst-case risk (nuclear melt-down and radioactivity spread over thousands of square miles).

7)Does not cause cancer due to exposing miners to Radon gas.

8)Provides a solid renewable base load.

9)Can also provide heating.

[tsport100]

They are running trials in Central Australia using the Fractured rock system. There are a few hurdles to over come yet.

1) The sites are usually hundreds of miles away from the load.

2) If the system of injecting water runs too fast it cools the rocks and makes the site useless.

3) Very expensive to drill to the depths required and with the oil boom drilling equip is in short supply.

4) They cause mini earthquakes. LOL

[t3hik]

1) You're a massive cake! gtfo tard.

[tsport100]

What is it school holidays again?? Go back to your gangster rap dickhead!

[t3hik]

where the fuck do you get your stupid info from? like the one that kills me the most

4) They cause mini earthquakes. LOL (I loled at how dumb that is).

and 2) If the system of injecting water runs too fast it cools the rocks and makes the site useless. The MAGMA heats it again and, that far down it's not gonna cool anything. The intense heat just wouldn't allow it.

LULZ gangsta rap. oh you funny guy (N!!).

[tsport100]

You're determined to remain ignorant all your life are you? Good luck with that!

I don't make this shit up... They're QUOTES.

It's simple: search google for "earthquake geothermal " and you'll get 444,000 returns. A geothermal plant has already triggered a 3.4 earthquake in Switzerland - it was in the news! So unless at 22yo you're the world authority on geothermal science I'd suggest you do some research next time before attempting to prove how ignorant you are in a public forum.

[tsport100]

5) Each site becomes less productive over time as the entire site cools and you'd have to wait a couple of years until it heats up again.

6) water extracted from deep within the Earth is slightly radioactive and contains contaminants like thorium and uranium and it may need to be treated so it doesn't damage generation equipment.

[milofonbil]

My list needed a little balance. LOL

1) New high voltage DC lines can minimize losses over a long distance

2) Duh

3) Maybe

4) LOL

5) You can't overload the site by trying to extract more energy from it than it has. Same as #2. Duh

6) Yes, and it has sulfur and mercury too. Some of these contaminants become a problem when re-injecting the water. So typically, these are removed. It's part of the technology.

[milofonbil]

1) 100% RENEWABLE. Uranium is not renewable. It's a finite source and will run out in 20-40 years.

2) Does not make us dependent on foreign fuels. Yes, Uranium is now being IMPORTED.

3) Not subject to fuel price increases - uranium is up 1000% over last 4 years

4) Produces less CO2 and other GHGs when comparing whole life cycles.

5) Does not produce high-level radioactive waste.

[charleshoskinson]

@milofonbil (1) Uranium will not exhaust itself at current usage for over 2,000 years. (2) There is enough domestic production if breeder reactors are produced to provide over 1,000 years of energy with our current domestic stockpiles (3) Commodity prices are always subject to variation, but frankly even with price shocks, it is still dramatically cheaper

(4) Nuclear power produces no CO2

(5) The waste can be recycled as it is in france and japan.

[milofonbil]

@charleshoskinson

1) The International Atomic Energy Agency and Nuclear Energy Agency figure there’s enough uranium to power existing plants for 100 years. The number of reactors worldwide is going to triple in the next 30 years. So that's really 30 years left for all n plants.

2) nonsense

3) true. Commodity prices are based on supply-demand and the cost to produce. As the commodity runs out, the price goes up.

4) yes it does due to the dependence on oil for many parts of the cycle.

[milofonbil]

@milofonbil

4) con't - such as mining, refining, enrichment, fuel production, and reprocessing.

5) "recycling"? Aluminum cans can be recycled. It's not like melting a can. N Fuel needs to be reprocessed. N fuel reprocessing produces a large volume of waste which must be buried for hundreds of thousands of years.

[venyusz01]

@charleshoskinson

1: If this would be true we would have an unlimited energy source (well, for 2000 yrs you say) and you would see everything running on free energy.

Wow, as soon a clever and very well presenting video appears some people want to look smart by saying things and creating facts.

I vote for geothermal, wind and other renewable energy sources over nuclear.