Imagine Blogs

While everyone was blaming the politicians for the high fuel prices, natter, natter, nag, march, protest, I was thinking that this may provide the necessary impetus for greater investmentin alternative and cleaner energy sources, especially such ones as demand high initial investment and are therefore high risk.

The Carbon Trading schemes proffer alternative income sources for the brave and clean (how come the rights groups in Kenya never talk about the environment, Wangari Maathai, etc?). Recently East Africa Portland Cement were signing some dealfor just this, don't know who else in Kenya is biting.

On the other hand, we do have great potential for alternative sources, see below, and rather than foolishly pretend that the price of oil will stay down here at about $50 a barrel (really would you aim at such a price if you were an exporter?), we would be better off enacting such laws as compel our oil companies (including NOCK, KenGen, KPLC, etc) to invest in  clean andnon-imported fuel sources. Here we go,

Credit, Big Gav over at the Oil Drum.

The ABC (Aussie) recently had a report on plans to power north-west Queensland with low temperature geothermal power using hot water from the Great Artesian Basin.....

Low temperature geothermal power is a relatively new (and very low profile) form of extracting energy from geothermal sources that provides yet another option for meeting our energy needs cleanly and sustainably.

When geothermal power is mentioned, people usually think of traditional high temperature geothermal power stations using water from volcanic areas, such as those found in Iceland, New Zealand, the US and elsewhere around the ring of fire.

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Low temperature geothermal power is also starting to attract significant interest, as lower temperature water resources are common in many countries (for example, waste hot water produced by oil and gas wells - in Texas alone, more than 12 billon barrels are produced, with oil companies usually re-injecting the waste water into the earth) and new technologies are beginning to appear that allow these resources to be developed commercially.

UTC Power has developed a low-cost Rankine cycle system that can convert temperatures as low as 195 °F (91 °C) into electricity. The technology is similar to a steam engine, with steam or hot water vaporizes a hydrofluorocarbon refrigerant that drives the turbine (it has been compared to a "refrigerator compressor running backwards").

 Interesting, stuff. Note also,

One of the best places to see a successful low-temperature installation is in Husavik, Iceland, of all places. Heat is added to the low temperature geothermal water by a garbage-burning facility. This was also the first implementation of the Kalina cycle in a geothermal power plant. The 3MW plant furnishes all the power needed by a small, isolated village.  

also this from an MIT study mentioned,

The study shows that drilling several wells to reach hot rock and connecting them to a fractured rock region that has been stimulated to let water flow through it creates a heat-exchanger that can produce large amounts of hot water or steam to run electric generators at the surface. Unlike conventional fossil-fuel power plants that burn coal, natural gas or oil, no fuel would be required. And unlike wind and solar systems, a geothermal plant works night and day, offering a non-interruptible source of electric power.  

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"This environmental advantage is due to low emissions and the small overall footprint of the entire geothermal system, which results because energy capture and extraction is contained entirely underground, and the surface equipment needed for conversion to electricity is relatively compact,"  

More here. Oil Drum article link here , check the comments.