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New Zealand used most of it's geothermal power.
http://www.power-technology.com/projects/mokai/
The entire city of Rotorua is heated with geothermal fueled baseboards.
You are right it isn't rocket science. Googling geothermal in New Zealand, much like Greenland, will give many sites.
Geothermal is used in the tourist industry also as a destination , just like Yosemite boiling pots, painted pots, geysers as well as the Maori culture to boost tourist numbers.
If you ever have the opportunity to go, be sure include a few Bed and Breakfast spots on your trip and meet some lovely families, see more of the culture and life on a sheep farm as well as the natural wonders there are many. Lakes full of swans, redwood trees that grow three times faster than they do in CA, lots of wonders!
mella l
mella l
Art and Science
bytheSEA
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The oldest US geothermal plant is just outside of San Francisco. The Geysers has provided power for 3/4 of a century, and 30 yrs ago when I was studying engineering, Geysers was highlighted for the amount of electricity produced (at one time supplying a large portion of the Bay demand):
http://www.geysers.com/
PGV is permitted to produce twice the output, but is currently a non-regulating facility. The County of Hawaii 2005 General Plan is a great resource on power use in this county:
http://www.hawaii-county.com/la/gp/2005/main.html
along with the Kohala Center:
http://learning.kohalacenter.org/general...asp?id=785
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Dr james, i remember werner von braun talking about being able to remove your meters as nuke tech will so drop the bill a flat charge will be enough to cover everyone. The only remaining problem is the waste and we'll fix that in a generation. That was in 1956, i think he missed the mark. The first geothermal plant i saw was in 69, the old plant in rotarua, nz, which was a huge duplicate of our kapoho well but more like a tuba than our sax. Kapoho was a disaster as would have been rotarua but it was in the boonies in an already sulfer smelling area.Both were obnoxious as hell. However the replacments are very well engineered by ormat, who built both of them. Another one in cal, somewhere near sf. has been running for a lot of years and is cleaner than ever. I would like to see hawaiians get some piece of this somehow, but right now ormat is producing 30 mw of power to about 1/3 of the island. Their rated capacity is 250mw reducing oil usesage some hundreds of thousand gallons. Their website "punageothermalventures.com" gives the specifics. Plus the epa watches these guys like hawks. Sorry james,i think we don't want to leave the liquid fuel thing, but by the time you get the land, clar,prep, fertilize deal with your bugs which will come, do we spray when they cause damage, the modern way would be to develop a bioengineered species immune to the problem, but we won't be able to as that too is being banned. Now we build a plant, storage tanks, retail outlets etc. Lets really stand out, and use what we have already have, creating the highest ev use in the country.
Gordon J Tilley
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I've heard that the geothermal that is used extensively in Iceland is of a different quality than what is available in Puna. Might be the sulphur content here? Does anyone have info about this?
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All i could see on iceland web was heating for the whole city and beyond, which is critial up there. I know there is some sulphur in all geo, but ormat seems to have it covered the proof is in the pudding.
Gordon J Tilley
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My modest grasp of vulcanology and geothermal power is that all volcanoes are not created equal; as for steam vents, geothermal uses, etc. Such that, for example, what Iceland does is not necessarily feasible here. Anyone know something? btw: please, it really is better to let facts get in the way of a good story... 
About PGV's 30 mw. It is max 20% of the island's electricity; 'renewables' (incl. PGV, Hawi and S. Pt. wind, and a few small hydro plants on Wailuku River) are about one third of island's electricty.
Big problem: more electricity generated East Hawaii than used East Hawaii; and more electricity used West Hawaii than generated West Hawaii. The line losses in sending that juice across the island cut into efficiency real bad like.
New Zealand:
We will be there next week (2 Jan - 22 Jan), on N. Island.
Have to have a look at Rotorua (we'll be going through there at least once)!
btw: also, New Zealand is at forefront of Zero Waste and we will be learning lots. And, forage-based dairy production is actually at the top of my list...much for Hawaii to learn from New Zealand ... more than from California or anywhere else in North America, perhaps?
About liquid fuels: for electricity? No.
Solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal (in that order) are lower impact and readily available for stationary power generation -- on a grid, yes; but, also in distributed/on-site electricty generation (we've got solar PV net metering on our house).
The market for liquid fuel is transportation / mobile machinery. Think farming, fishing, forestry... tractors, boats, trucks, and other mobile utility vehicles used for power, not speed, distance, or commuting. Besides, all of these machines use diesel fuel now and, to an extent not greatly apreciated, it may well be the machines we now have that we will need to rely heavily on for some years to come. Geothermal electric transportation might happen, and I hope it does. Nobody I've heard discuss it has come close to connecting the dots from here to there, when 'there' is any sooner than 30 to 50 years from now. In less than 8 years from now, we expect to have island-grown liquid fuel ready to use.
James Weatherford, Ph.D.
15-1888 Hialoa
Hawaiian Paradise Park
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River powered Hydroelectric power will probably be hard to expand in Hawaii after the Honolii EIS went to the state supreme court in the early '90s (none have been approved since)
Most alternative power systems look at pollution offsets, and the offsets for geothermal vs. oil are great.
That said, oil electrical power generation is much cleaner and efficient than oil used in the transportation sector, with car & air travel greatly increasing ones carbon footprint... reducing your oil based transportation is the best way to reduce your personal pollution profile.
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quote:
Originally posted by james weatherford
Solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal (in that order) are lower impact and readily available for stationary power generation -- on a grid, yes; but, also in distributed/on-site electricty generation (we've got solar PV net metering on our house).
James Weatherford, Ph.D.
15-1888 Hialoa
Hawaiian Paradise Park
Aloha Dr. Weatherford
Would you please elaborate on "net metering". How was your experience with HE? Did you completely eliminate batteries from your PV system? What, if any, are the special wiring considerations (For example, is your house wired with two circuits - 1 HE circuit and 1 PV circuit?) Do you have any warning/suggestions for somebody who may be considering installing a net metering system.
Keep in mind that I have absolutely NO experience with PV systems, let alone net metering, so I'll apologize in advance if any of my questions border on the ridiculous.
Mahalo
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quote:
Originally posted by Wegian
[quote]
elaborate on "net metering"...experience with HE? ...batteries ...special wiring considerations ... warning/suggestions for somebody who may be considering installing a net metering system
"Net metering": we use electricity; when our PV is making less than we are using, the difference comes from HELCO grid; when our PV is making the more than we are using, the difference goes on to the grid.
We are 'credited' for what our PV puts on the grid and our bill reduced by that much. There is an annual credit reconciliation.
No batteries. But, no power when the grid goes down either (we expect to put up a separate back-up system to take care of this).
HELCO has no option but to cooperate (it's the law). They seemed like they were on a steep learning curve in dealing with customers producing their own power, but time may resolve that.
James Weatherford, Ph.D.
15-1888 Hialoa
Hawaiian Paradise Park
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Dr james, net metering is the ultimate in solar and is the ultimate system for the well heeled. What is the payback time, and will it come before the panels break down? I concede the power breakdown I gave was a stretch, and you're closer , it appears to be about 25% all 4, geo,solar wind and hydro with geo at 19+% , and the rest 6%. However only geo is uninterrupted. As for transmission , A cable to Maui is a possibility being looked into. If the bi power lines aren't capable they need to upgrade. Again, congratulations on having the ultimate in solar application, but at the cost of a small house kit. Certainly geo has different applications everywhere, we don't really need heat here, but we sure need electric(cheaper). While in nz, check the kauri tree farms, I wish we had of instead of planting eucalyptus for chips! Also, we're buildng a large biodeisel plant in kapolei on oahu, and importing palm oil etc from Indonesia until we grow our own substitutes. I sure hope you can mechanically pick your crop,or labor will be a killer. You'll love nz, ormat is there too, also study the british history in nz, and why a treaty has made a difference in attitude toward the local population. The brits hired a us cavalry unit after the civil war to help overthrow the maori. The cav, on horses were getting their buts whipped by spearthrowing uncompromising maori warriors . Finally, before losing all, the us commander told the brits to negotiate a treaty, which they did and it's negotiated yearly till today. In nz the maori own the geothermal plant and they can even transmit it over 100 miles too bad we can't!
Gordon J Tilley
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