5 ms·
50 MW seems really small? I don't think nuclear is the way to go, but the scale seems to make this type of plant irrelevant. from: http://www.eia.gov/tools/faq
by irq-1 10y ago
50 MW seems really small? I don't think nuclear is the way to go, but the scale seems to make this type of plant irrelevant.
from: http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=104&t=3 http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=104&t=3
> As of December 1, 2015, there were 99 operating nuclear reactors at 61 nuclear power plants in the United States. The Fort Calhoun plant in Nebraska has one reactor with the smallest generating capacity of 479 megawatts (MW). The Palo Verde plant in Arizona has three reactors and has the largest combined generating capacity of about 3,937 MW.
- maxerickson 10y agoIf the cost of the produced electricity is competitive, the unit size of the production system doesn't matter much (this metric will account for the differing capital and operating costs of the production systems). Looking around a bit, I guess nuclear is considered cheaper than geothermal, but for Iceland the fixed costs of dealing with nuclear might be prohibitive (right now they spend nothing on stuff like securing nuclear materials, to add a gigawatt of nuclear, they have to deal with it for a long time, or pay someone else to do it).
- tombone12 10y agoYeah, Iceland doesn't really have a surplus if geologically stable land...
- niftich 10y agoIceland's total installed capacity in 2014 was 2770 MW; total generation was 18.1 TWh [1]. So interestingly, even at Iceland's scale, this 50 MW additional capacity will amount to only 1% of their total installed capacity, which seems small. [1] http://px.hagstofa.is/pxen/pxweb/en/Atvinnuvegir/Atvinnuvegir__orkumal/IDN02101.px/table/tableViewLayout1/?rxid=16bfe9e2-0a91-47fb-8d3c-bde71163af5c http://px.hagstofa.is/pxen/pxweb/en/Atvinnuvegir/Atvinnuvegi...
- tombone12 10y agoIt's 50 MW per borehole, a power station typically generates power from a largish number of holes. A big geothermal plant on Iceland can have 30 boreholes, which with the new method could then produce 1.5 TW, 54 % of total capacity. Of course, how much is actually possible to take out at given size depends on the size of the magma system you are tapping and how fast it refills.
- kolinko 10y ago1.5 GW ftfy
- adevine 10y agoIceland currently generates more electrical power per capita than any other country; they only have about 325k residents. All that cheap geothermal power is being used for energy intensive industry, like aluminum production. While one borehole of 50 MW is not huge on their scale, each bit of additional energy can go toward their industries.
- hugi 10y agoThe article is somewhat misleading. The 50MW number refers to power provided by each borehole, not an entire plant. For example, the Hellisheiði Geothermal Power Station [1] generates around 450MW using 30 holes. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellisheiði_Power_Station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellisheiði_Power_Station