We took a tour of the Blundell Geothermal Plant in Milford, Utah on June 15. Geothermal refers to the heat naturally produced deep inside of the earth. The technology for this plant comes from Israel and there are two different geothermal units at this plant. Our two tour guides were Rene Andrews, safety supervisor and Garth Larson, plant supervisor.
The first is a single-flash unit. Four wells extend a mile or so underground into a reservoir which are connected to a separator. Water in the reservoir is 500 degrees Fahrenheit and has 450 pounds per square inch. 18% of geothermal liquid or brine flashes into steam in the separator tank. The rest of the liquid, 82%, that doesn’t flash into steam is gathered at each well and pumped though pipes to an injection well that returns it to the reservoir to be heated then recycled. The steam moves turbines that power conductors that produce 23,500 kilowatts electricity.
Cooling towers of single flash unit.
Photo Credit: Erin Maguire
The second unit is binary system, brine from four wells heats up isopetane to create energy in a closed loop system. This unit produces 9.5 megawatts electricity. Both systems together provide electricity for 30,000 homes.
A small view of the seconday unit at plant.
Photo Credit: Erin Maguire
We're seeing here various approaches by states to a rather worthy cause. Geothermal power is indeed the future of fuel, or at least should be, as its safe, efficient and clean. Thus, alternates such as this should be fully harnessed and explored, to rid ourselves of dependencies on problematic ( and rather depleted ) resource such as fossil fuel.
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