spacer HOME - TARGETING GEOTHERMAL ENERGY - THE PROCESS
 

The Steps to recover heat trapped in hot rocks at depth are:

Drilling into hot rocks

Wells are drilled into rocks which are much hotter than normal and sufficiently hot to enable commercial generation of electricity.

Hydraulic fracturing is used to enhance the natural fracture
permeability of the reservoir rocks.

Geothermal energy from hot dry rocks is recovered by drilling deep into the hot crystalline rocks (usually granitic) and forcing water down an injection well and through fractures forced open by the water pressure in the rocks at depth and back to the surface through fractures connecting to other wells drilled nearby. The water gathers heat and becomes superheated as it flows through the hot rocks.

Electricity generation from geothermal energy uses conventional
turbines and generating equipment.

The superheated water is passed through a heat exchanger at the surface, where the heat is transferred to a lower boiling point liquid in a power generation plant. The resulting vapour drives turbines in the power plant to produce electricity. Cooled water is then re-injected into the first well to be repeatedly used. Power output can be increased by adding more wells and reservoirs.



Mokai, (100 MW geothermal power plant) by courtesy of ORMAT