Big island of Hawaii gets 20% of its electricity from geothermal
December 26, 2011 by John McRae
A geothermal plant on Hawaii’s Big Island is providing 20% of that islands electricity needs, with additional capacity in the works.
The Puna Geothermal Venture is run by Ormat Technologies and is located in the Mt. Kilauea East Rift zone. The plant has five wells that bring up 650-degree geothermal fluids to the surface where the steam is separated out and used to drive generators. The plant also captures waste heat from the primary circuit with fluid pentane to increase power output and efficiency.
The plant is currently contracted to provide 30 MW of electricity to Hawaii Electric and Light through 2030, but is looking to add another 8 MW of capacity soon, as well as building new reservoirs off the coast of Maui and near Mt. Hualalai to expand its electricity coverage across the islands.
With the vast amount of geothermal energy in the area, Hawaii could easily get most of their electricity from these sources within the near future.
via Cleantechnica
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