Title:

Life Cycle Environmental Impacts of Geothermal Systems

Authors:

Corrie CLARK, John SULLIVAN, Chris HARTO, Jeongwoo HAN, and Michael WANG

Key Words:

life cycle, greenhouse gas emissions, water

Conference:

Stanford Geothermal Workshop

Year:

2012

Session:

General

Language:

English

Paper Number:

Clark

File Size:

348 KB

View File:

Abstract:

Geothermal energy is increasingly recognized for its potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Studies have shown that air emissions, water consumption, and land use under geothermal electricity generation will have less of an environmental impact than traditional fossil fuel-based electricity generators. However, the environmental impacts of geothermal energy across its life cycle, including the construction of well fields and production facilities, are less well understood. With a potential threefold increase in geothermal electricity generation by 2035, the lifecycle impacts of geothermal technologies must be explored. This paper presents potential impacts and factors associated with construction, drilling, and production activities of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS), hydrothermal binary, hydrothermal flash, and geopressured geothermal systems. Five power plant scenarios were evaluated: a 20-MW EGS plant, a 50 MW EGS plant, a 10-MW binary plant, a 50-MW flash plant, and a 3.6-MW geopressured plant that coproduces natural gas. The impacts associated with these power plant scenarios are compared with those from other electricity generating technologies.


ec2-44-201-131-213.compute-1.amazonaws.com, you have accessed 0 records today.

Press the Back button in your browser, or search again.

Copyright 2012, Stanford Geothermal Program: Readers who download papers from this site should honor the copyright of the original authors and may not copy or distribute the work further without the permission of the original publisher.


Attend the nwxt Stanford Geothermal Workshop, click here for details.

Accessed by: ec2-44-201-131-213.compute-1.amazonaws.com (44.201.131.213)
Accessed: Thursday 28th of March 2024 09:02:46 AM