Greece, Milos Island Geothermal Project

Abstract

On Milos island (Aegean Sea) a high enthalpy water dominated geothermal field of high salinity exists. At 1985, a 2 MW geothermoelectric pilot plant was installed on the island. This plant has been provided by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan under a contract with Public Power Corporation of Greece. Due to high salinity of the geothermal fluid, unforeseen problems (scaling mainly) arised in both steam and brine cycles. As a consequence, the operation (trial mainly) of the power plant have been interrupted several time for long periods, in order to identify the arised, each time, problems and find the most appropriate technical solution. The above fact, as well as, some unfortunate coincidences, described in this paper, led Milos people to react against geothermal development in their island The sequence of the events, technical and nontechnical, their approach and the relevant conclusions are reported in this presentation.