- #1
PraAnan
- 77
- 1
Hello everyone,
Just posting this because I was wondering if it's possible to build 5-10km deep closed loop geothermal power plants from microgrid sizes of 1-5MWe to commercial power plant sizes of 0.5-1GWe that can have construction costs in the $3,000,000 per MWe range (similar to solar and coal).
The most difficult and expensive part seems to be the drilling but with current technologies such as hydrothermal spallation, plasma drilling etc. can this not be made cheaper?
By drilling deep doesn't the location of potential plants become much less strict?
Might be a silly question but if you're extracting the heat from a specific area won't you cool the surrounding rock and in turn reduce the temperature of the liquid in the pipes. In other words, do deep geothermal plants produce less power over time? Or is it like trying to extract heat from a kettle which is constantly boiling where any heat you take out is replaced?
Thanks for reading.
Just posting this because I was wondering if it's possible to build 5-10km deep closed loop geothermal power plants from microgrid sizes of 1-5MWe to commercial power plant sizes of 0.5-1GWe that can have construction costs in the $3,000,000 per MWe range (similar to solar and coal).
The most difficult and expensive part seems to be the drilling but with current technologies such as hydrothermal spallation, plasma drilling etc. can this not be made cheaper?
By drilling deep doesn't the location of potential plants become much less strict?
Might be a silly question but if you're extracting the heat from a specific area won't you cool the surrounding rock and in turn reduce the temperature of the liquid in the pipes. In other words, do deep geothermal plants produce less power over time? Or is it like trying to extract heat from a kettle which is constantly boiling where any heat you take out is replaced?
Thanks for reading.