Dry Steam Plants

Dry steam plants use steam directly from a geothermal reservoir to turn generator turbines. The first geothermal power plant was built in 1904 in Tuscany, Italy, where natural steam erupted from the earth.

Flash Steam Plants

Flash steam plants take high-pressure hot water from deep inside the earth and convert it to steam to drive generator turbines. When the steam cools, it condenses to water and is injected back into the ground to be used again. Most geothermal power plants are flash steam plants.

Binary Cycle Plants

Binary cycle power plants transfer the heat from geothermal hot water to another liquid. The heat causes the second liquid to turn to steam, which is used to drive a generator turbine.

Sustainability

What does sustainability really mean. According to current online dictionaries it means

• the ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level.
• avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance.

Geothermal is sustainable, cleaner and cheaper then any fossil fuel and is an unexhaustable resource for power. Low emissions and almost zero environmental impact

Eco-Friendly

The environmental effects of geothermal energy depend on how geothermal energy is used or how it is converted to useful energy. Direct use applications and geothermal heat pumps have almost no negative effects on the environment. In fact, they can have a positive effect by reducing the use of energy sources that may have negative effects on the environment.

Geothermal power plants do not burn fuel to generate electricity, so the levels of air pollutants they emit are low. Geothermal power plants emit 97% less acid rain-causing sulfur compounds and about 99% less carbon dioxide than fossil fuel power plants of similar size. Geothermal power plants use scrubbers to remove the hydrogen sulfide naturally found in geothermal reservoirs. Most geothermal power plants inject the geothermal steam and water that they use back into the earth. This recycling helps to renew the geothermal resource.