The Thermodynamic and Cost Benefits of a Floating Cooling Geothermal Binary Cycle Power Plant at Heber, California
- Key words
- USA; California; Imperial; Heber
- Location
- Heber, California; Imperial Valley
- Conference
- Geothermal Resources Council Transactions
- Year
- 1978
- Session
- Economics; Cooling towers; Binary cycle power generation; Co
- Language
- English
Abstract
The application of the floating cooling concepts to evaporating heat rejection systems is studied as a method of improving the performance of geothermal powerplants operating upon medium temperatures hydrothermal resources. The LBL thermodynamic process computer code GEOTHM is used in the case study of a 50MWe isobutane binary cycle power plant at Heber, California. It is shown that operating a fixed capacity plants in the floating cooling mode can generate significantly more electrical energy at a higher thermodynamic efficiency and reduced bus bar cost for approximately the same capital investment. Floating cooling is also shown to minimize the adverse influence on plant performance due to a declining resource temperature.
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