Geothermal Energy - The Environmental Impacts Of EGS - Part 1
Impacts Of Enhanced Geothermal Systems to the Environment. The Geothermal Power is a hot topic these days but here I want to list several aspects of the EGS environmental impacts:
Gas emissions
They are result from the release of noncondensable gases (NCGs) in the process of getting the water from the steam source to the power plant. In the hydrothermal the most common NCGs are carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide together with some other in very low concentration. It is expected that in EGS installations their level will be insignificant. Nevertheless, there are some ways in which the latter can be guarantee and controlled. In the flash power plants the vent steam of NCGs can be chemically tested and scrubbed to remove the hydrogen sulfide. Or the NCGs can be recompressed and reinjected into the subsurface. In the binary power plants this problem does not exist because the one is using secondary working fluid and NCGs are reinjected directly.
Water pollution
Liquid steams from drilling, stimulation and production contains dissolved solids, especially in the high temperature reservoirs (above 230 C). Some of them like boron and arsenic can poison the surface or the ground waters. This can be made first through break in the well casing or through surface runoff. The latter can be controlled with establishment of waterproof holding pond which gathers the waste steams and reinject them back beneath the surface.
Solids emissions
There is no chance of pollution with solids emissions. For precautions though the working fluid in EGS should be chemically treated for eventual dissolved toxic solids.
Noise
The highest noise that is produced is during the process of well drilling, stimulation and testing. The noise is between 80 and 115 decibels. During the normal operation of the plant the noise is between 71 and 83 decibels ate a range of 900 meters and the noise drops rapidly with the distance, so at the boundary it should be disturbing. The main sources of noise in the installation are the power house, the cooling power and the transformer. Because the tall structure of the cooling tower this can be the serious noise maker during the plant operation and can be controlled with additional mufflers. As the EGS are build in regions with less water they need to use not water cooling systems (which use less cells with vans), but air cooling (bigger, more cells, which with van).
Land use
The power plant is built at or near the geothermal reservoir because the long transmissions lines will decrease the pressure and the temperature of the geothermal fluid. Gathering pipelines are on stanchions so the land below can be used.
Land subsidence
There is no such option, because after the well is drilled, water with high pressured is plumped inside so to fill the joints. Because the reservoir is kept under pressure all the time and the water level stays the same during operation there can not be land subsidence.
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