Please activate JavaScript!
Please install Adobe Flash Player, click here for download
ePaper created 2014-06-03, 15:03:20 | version 1.30.01
41 02 RENEWABLES 2014 GLOBAL STATUS REPORT ■■ GEOTHERMAL INDUSTRY In 2013, the geothermal industry, often with the support of governments, continued to pursue technological innovation for expandedresourceaccessandimprovedeconomiesofextraction. Objectives include improving the efficiency of conventional geothermal resources utilisation, as well as advancing techno- logies that allow expanded use of low-temperature fields for both power and heat, thereby increasing the application of geothermal energy beyond high-temperature locations. Among notable industry advances in 2013 was Australia’s first EGS facility, one of only a handful of such projects in the world. Geodynamics’ (Australia) Habanero Pilot Plant (1 MW) in the Cooper Basin of South Australia successfully completed its initial 160-day trial in 2013, with production and injection wells extending more than four kilometres into hot granite.48 In Italy, Enel Green Power (Italy) started operation of its 1 MW binary plant at Monte Amiata, fitted with a first-of-its-kind radial outflow ORC turbine by Exergy (Italy), which is said to advance generating efficiency.49 The industry also saw some repowering and refurbishment of existing facilities. Ormat Industries (United States) refurbished a 7.5 MW unit in California and repowered a 4 MW plant in Utah.50 The geothermal industry, whether it is in power or heat generation, is made up of a relatively few firms that work on the various segments of geothermal project development, from exploration, drilling, engineering, and design, through construction and, finally, plant operation. Some of these firms are vertically integrated, in that they work on most or even all stages of geothermal project development, while others are highly specialised.51 For example, Enel, Ormat Industries, and Chevron (United States) are vertically integrated energy companies.52 Highlyspecialisedfirmsincludedrillingcontractors like Thermasource (United States) and Iceland Drilling (Iceland), as well as engineering firms with specialised knowledge of the geothermal projects, such as Mannvit (Iceland), Verkis (Iceland), and Power Engineers (United States). Some firms possess particular expertise and proprietary technology within the industry. These include, for example, Ormat,whichspecialisesindesign,engineering,andconstruction of binary (ORC) power plants and their components, such as the Ngatamariki plant that opened in New Zealand in 2013; Turboden (Italy), which specialises in binary turbine-generators, such as the 5.6 MW unit inaugurated in 2013 near Munich, Germany; and Exergy, which implemented a new turbine design in Italy, as noted above.53 Other suppliers of turbine-generator components count the industrial heavyweights that also operate in the thermal (fossil and nuclear) and hydropower sectors, such as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Toshiba, Fuji Electric (all Japan, commanding about two-thirds of the turbine-generator market), Alstom (France), Ansaldo Energia (Italy), and Siemens (Germany).54 Whether for heat or power generation, the industry continues to face many technology challenges. Areas that need improvement include discovery, access, maintenance, and monitoring of the geothermal resource, whether it is conventional geothermal, low-temperature, or a candidate for Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS).55 To that end, the industry is applying innovations that include directional drilling and other lessons from the oil and gas sectors.56 In those locations where sufficient heat demand coincides with geothermal resources, such as the new Sauerlach plant in Germany, the development of combined heat and power is also helping to improve project economics.57 Enhanced geothermal systems are on the forefront of technological innovation in the industry and represent a very significant potential. This relatively new technology was pioneered in the United States, but the world’s first grid-connected EGS plant to come on line was the 2 MW Soultz facility in France in 2008.58 EGS enhances extraction of heat by fracturing subsurface rock for greater permeability, allowing production similar to naturally occurring conventional geothermal fields.59 Unlike conventional geothermal resources, which are limited to relatively few places on Earth, the heat bound in deep rock that EGS is designed to tap into is far more widespread and plentiful, but also more difficult to harness. Despite the large potential of EGS, attracting the requisite funds to advance EGS technologies is reportedly a challenge, largely because they may still be 10–15 years from commercial maturity and carry significant technological risk.60 Key priorities for the EGS industry today are continued advances in the technology of sustainable field enhancement and reduced drilling costs.61 The industry is learning to control and reduce risks of any adverse effects associated with EGS development so that the vast potential of EGS may materialise.62 Project risk is a uniquely significant aspect of geothermal development in general. A typical geothermal plant may take 5–7 years from start to finish, with up to five years devoted to exploration, test drilling, and field development before construction of the plant itself.63 Project developers face significant financial risk of high upfront cost and long lead times, but also the risk of failing to meet required parameters at each stage of development, from initial exploration to plant operation.64 To manage this risk, one urgent objective is better and more- comprehensive global geothermal resource assessment.65 Several countries have implemented risk funds, insurance funds, or loan guarantees to absorb some of the risk, with renewed enthusiasm for establishing a single fund for the European Union.66 The U.S. Department of Energy provides targeted financial support to the geothermal sector, and Japan’s Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation provides liability guarantees but also direct funding and information on geothermal resources.67 To uncork the bottleneck on behalf of developing countries, in 2013 the World Bank launched a Global Geothermal Development Plan to focus the attention of donors and multilateral development banks on exploratory test drilling rather than just the production phase of geothermal projects. The Plan had an initial target funding of USD 500 million.68