Saudi Arabia’s percapita consumption of fresh water (domestic and agricultural sectors)is about 960 m3/y. Since the country receives scanty rainfall, the aquifers are notadequately recharged and the water demand is supported by fresh water generatedthrough desalination process. Saudi Arabia uses energy intensive conventional desalinationprocess while the world uses reverse osmosis process. The conventional desalinationmethods consume 12 x 109 kWh to generate 1 m3of fresh water.Thus this process emits large amount of CO2. The cost to generate 20,000 m3/day offresh water through vacuum membrane technique, is about US$ 0.53/m3 while the cost togenerate similar volume of through using conventional energy source is US$ 1.22/m3. The CO2 related temperature effect that is currently experiencedin Saudi Arabia has direct impact on the agriculturalproduction, especially with respect to wheat production. If the CO2 emission trendcontinues at the current rate, then the wheat production will drastically be reduced. In addition to the climate, water stress condition that forcedthe government to change the wheat production policy will increase food security threatto the country. In addition, trace element concentrations in agricultural soils irrigatedwith treated sewage water has increased considerably relative the concentration of suchelements in soils irrigated with normal groundwater and desalinated water. This built upof trace elements concentration in soils in certain parts of the country is deteriorating thesoil fertility and thereby reducing the crop production. Thus for domestic and agricultural sectors need, desalinated water can be used and subsidy on the cost of desalinated water can be removed once the desalination process lines using geothermal energy source stabilizes. The current cost of desalinated water, processedthrough conventional energy source, in Saudi Arabia with subsidy is 0.03 US$/m3 whichis far less than the average cost of US$ 6/m3. This cost is much higher compared to thecost projected using geothermal energy source. Once fresh water is available at affordable cost ( with same cost without subsidy) and with abundantfossil fuel reserves, the Saudi Arabia can have strong control over energy and foodsecurity and help other gulf countries and countries surrounding the Red Sea to improvetheir fresh water demand.
Archive for the 'Geothermal Energy' Category
Plasma drilling
While our geothermal pundits are battling with draft policy with committees that have marginal knowledge on geothermal, other countries have advanced with plasma drilling technology for deep geothermal. Robust plasma generator is the method behind this technology developed in Slovakia. This non-contact drilling process can withstand extreme P & T. Electronic plasma is utilized to drill a hole in granites to extract heat for power generation and other direct application. Other most important advantage is the real time data collection of the rock that is in contact with the plasma at any given point of time, depth and temperature. This technology cuts drilling and infrastructure costs (that is very high in conventional drilling), costs related to rig movement, hiring, drill bit costs, drilling mud etc. The GA company, acronym for “Geothermal Anywhere” has pioneered in this technology and this technology is the future drilling technology for energy security and energy independence to many countries endowed with high heat generating granites.
India is one of the few countries that contain geological formations extending from Archean to recent. The country has excellent exposures of rocks belonging to the entire geological age spectrum, and a major volume is represented by volcanic and plutonic rocks. Volcanic flows and sedimentary formations provide excellent heat insulation to these plutonic intrusions. These plutonic rocks play an important role in the Indian stratigraphy. Granites of age varying from the Precambrian to Recent occur in India and the area occupied by these granites is over 150,000 sq.km (Hot Dry Rock Potential in India: Future Road Map to Make India Energy Independent by Chandrasekharam and Chandrasekhar, World Geothermal Congress, 2010). These granites are “comfortably” covered by the Deccan flood basalts and alluvium. Some of these granites have the capacity to generate high heat due to high content of radioactive elements. They have the capacity to generate energy equivalent to 3.133 x 1022 BTU. India can plan to use this technology to have several micro-grids across all its villages and make rural India to have electricity and water for ever. This will happen when right people are in the right place.
Having went around scouting for green sustainable energy for several years, having conducted several international workshops and conferences, MASDAR now realized that geothermal is superior to SOLAR PV for power generation and to provide large volumes of fresh water. Top- brass executives sitting in glass houses and ivory towers forget the basics/fundamentals of energy economics and processes. The “mass”: having no knowledge about the potential of difference green energy sources follow the leader blindly only to hit a road block while arriving at the selling cost of unit of power. Any modals, mathematical computation, new formulae, people forget , can not, over night bring down the unit cost of solar pv based electricity. There is a science behind it. “Better late than never” proverb is very apt here. The UNFC, having realised the potential of geothermal, has come out with a document specification to geothermal that is being circulated to experts for comments. IGA actively participated in the preparation of the document. GeoSyndicate from India actively participated during the initial preparation of the draft document. The Dubai electricity and water supply is now keen in using geothermal energy sources for desalination. This concept and proposal has already been published in the following paper
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Desalination of Seawater using Geothermal Energy to Meet Future Fresh Water Demand of Saudi Arabia
D. Chandrasekharam, A. Lashin, N. Al Arifi, A. Al Bassam & C. Varun
Water Resour Manage
DOI 10.1007/s11269-016-1419-2
Abstract The future economy of the Middle East countries (GDP growth) depends on the availability of fresh water for domestic and agricultural sectors. Saudi Arabia, for example, consumes 275 L/day per capita of water that is generated from desalination process using 134 x 106 kWh of electricity. With 6 % population growth rate, demand for fresh water from fossil fuel based desalination plants will grow at an alarming rate. It has been reported that Saudi Arabia’s reliance on fossil fuels to generate electricity and generate fresh water through desalination using the same energy source is economically and politically unsustainable. This may lead to destabilisation of the global economy. However, Saudi Arabia has large geothermal resources along the Red Sea coast that can be developed to generate power and support the generation of fresh water through desalination. The cost of fresh water can be further lowered from the current US$ 0.03/m3. Among the gulf countries, Saudi Arabia can become the leader in controlling CO2 emissions and mitigating the impact on climate change and agricultural production. This will enable the country to meet the growing demand of food and energy for the future population for several decades and to reduce food imports.
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Not only the gulf countries, but all other water stressed countries have no option but to look at geothermal to meet future energy and get safe drinking water. This will off set future “water world war”!! Countries have to be food and water secured if its population want to live decent life above the poverty line. Countries should wakeup and realize this truth before it is too late……that proverb may not work here…..perhaps!!!!
NEW BOOK Release
Red Sea Geothermal Provinces
D. Chandrasekharam, Aref Lashin, Nassir Al Arifi, Abdulaziz M Al-Bassam
“Today, over two billion people in developing countries live without any electricity. They lead lives of misery, walking miles every day for water and firewood, just to survive. What if there was an existing, viable technology, that when developed to its highest potential could increase everyone’s standard of living, cut fossil fuel demand and the resultant pollution Said Peter Meisen, President, Global Energy Network Institute in 1997. After 7 years the situation remained the same. In the annual meetings held in 2004, the World Bank President said “We must give higher priority to renewable energy. New and clean technologies can allow the poor to achieve the benefits of development without having to face the same environmental costs the developed world has experienced” World Bank President, Annual Meeting, 2004. Even after four years the situation has not changed in the rural sector of the developing countries. 90% of world population living in rural areas in developing countries have no access to basic needs like nutrition, warmth and light in spite of the fact that technologies for developing renewable energies jumped leaps and bounds and this is especially so with respect to geothermal.
This is especially true with respect to the countries around the Red Sea. It is very interesting to observe that geothermal resources are available in the countries rich in oil and gas resources and in those countries that have no oil and gas resources. Those countries that have rich geothermal resources like Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Yemen, depend on imported fossil fuels to support their energy demand instead of developing naturally available geothermal resources. Thus their economic growth lies outside their country’s boundaries. Nasically some one else dictates your economic growth. These countries have no energy independence and energy security. Besides energy, these countries face acute shortage of fresh water because these countries receive scanty rainfall. Thus these countries have no food security as well. On the other hand, Saudi Arabia has surplus oil and gas resources and are not aware of the vast geothermal resources existing within the Saudi Arabian shield. Among the countries around the Red Sea, Saudi Arabia emits 4 billion tonnes of CO2 per year. Because Saudi Arabia has surplus fossil fuel reserves, the country is generating fresh water through desalination to support the demand from domestic and agricultural sectors at the cost of emitting about 13 Mt of CO2. This country is already experiencing change of weather pattern and increase in ambient temperature. Due to fresh water stress status, the country has adopted a policy to stop wheat production from 2016 onwards there by putting the country’s food security in other countries. This is a matter of serious concern. Thus rich poor countries have energy assets that have not been utilized and both countries have one common problem…….fresh water for the millions!! All the countries around the Red Sea have excellent hydrothermal and EGS (Enhanced Geothermal Systems) sources that can be developed. Technology to generate electricity from both the sources is matured and available off the shelf. Unlike other renewables, geothermal energy can supply base load power and > 90% online. In addition to power, this energy can support green house cultivation, dehydration of agricultural products. The most significant contribution that geothermal energy can make in these countries is to generate fresh water to meet the growing demand from domestic and agricultural sectors. Countries can be energy independent and can have food security and support the development of the rural region. In the next century these countries can become energy and water surplus countries and support other neighbouring countries to elevate the socio-economic status of the rural population. The book starts with an over look on the carbon intensity index under 6D 4D and 2D scenarios the world is currently debating and highlights the levalized cost of electricity generated by a variety of renewable energy sources like solar pv, wind, biomass and geothermal. The facts are open for anyone to judge the credibility of geothermal. All good things come with a premium so does geothermal! The most important message the authors make to the world community in the beginning is that energy and water dictates the future of any country……rich or poor.
Electricity markets, future electricity demand GDP growth and population in the countries around the Red Sea verses the global electricity demand, especially the OECD countries is discussed in Chapter Two. The statement made by Pierre Gadonneix in 2006 very true. Fossil fuels and renewables have grown together and will do so in future. At least till 2040 these energy sources will not cross their paths. This parallel growth is a sign and a ray hope, to see light at the end of this CO2 tunnel.
Over sixty nine percent of CO2 is emitted by the energy source we use……fossil fuels. It is very obvious that we will cross the 2 D thresh-hold very soon if we do not realize how much CO2 we are emitting. Poor countries are emitting since they feel that they have no option and rich countries…..out of ignorance. But both have a single option to control CO2 emission and preserve the world for our future generation. All countries should honour its commitments in controlling CO2 emissions. Chapter three unfolds the CO2 facts of all the countries around the Red Sea and its contribution to the global climate change.
“Geothermal is 100 per cent indigenous, environmentally-friendly and a technology that has been under-utilized for too long”. This statement made by Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, at the UN climate convention conference in Poland in 2008 is absolutely true especially with respect to the countries described in this book. Chapter four unfolds the evolution of the geothermal systems in these countries in relation to the geology and tectonics and gives in depth knowledge about the quantum of energy resources that is awaiting to be explored and exploited. Estimates of electricity that can be generated from the existing hydrothermal systems is highlighted. Chapters three and four unfolds strategies that the countries can adopt and modify its energy policies to give better life to its future generations.
The International Energy Agency in 2014 brought out five key actions to achieve low carbon energy sector. Strong policies are required to decarbonize electricity sector. CO2 reduction strategies the countries can adopt, in the light of the debate that is being held between CoP 21 currently, without sacrificing socio-economic growth are focused in Chapter five……………………………………………10 Chapters and 222 pages. So much information on those countries and their geothermal potential. For more information read on CRC press website.
Make in Naivasha
As discussed and published in various forums, it is now happening……geothermal is taking off in a big way and the phrase ‘ power from your backyard’ is going to be a reality soon. For those “novice to geothermal’ the GEA has published a basic documents in its annual report. Those bureaucrats who are under the impression that “mining earth’s heat will cool the earth shortly and thus is not permitted and illegal” should read this document and see documentary on volcanoes that are erupting now . In fact I had to answer such innocent (should I call ignorant) questions on several occasions with the state govt. bureaucrats while I was explaining geothermal systems and its advantages and why India, like other countries, should take initiative to develop its geothermal resources. Now the world has gone several steps ahead and huge grants were granted for R & D in enhanced geothermal systems. About US$10 million has been granted for integrated Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) research and development in USA, reports a new item from the Geothermal Energy Association. Nearly 12 research institutes were awarded this grant. When we can reach Mars and mine the sea bed, drilling 3 to 4 km into the earth’s crust is not very difficult now. France did it, Australia did it, Germany did it for geothermal. Drilling technology together with the technology in creating heat exchanger in the granites have advanced and these two major processes are being mastered now. As reported earlier, countries like India have high heat generating granites like those occurring in Australia and Europe, that are huge clean energy source for future. The global geothermal installed capacity is going to jump to 13452 MWe in 2018 from the current 12013 MWe. With EGS in place countries energy supply is endless. Right now the world is focussing on East African Rift Geothermal systems (EARG) ………………………..it is going to grow in a big way and the estimated power is around 10,000 to 20,000 MWe. East Africa-America initiative is taken off now for geothermal and world can participate in this initiative………provided you have the requisite expertise!! This is no nonsense programme. Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania are the geothermal hot beds now. The EAR is propagating into the Tanzania craton initiated by a mantle plume sitting right below the centre of the craton. High heat flow values (~75mW/m2) are recorded over the craton that comprises granites and its equivalents. These granites have tremendous capacity to light the rural Tanzania with grid connected electricity in the near future. Each cubic kilometre of such granite has the capacity to generate about 42 x 1015 kWh of electricity. Kenya with its expertise in geothermal development will have major role in supplying major infrastructure facility to make Tanzania energy independent and save millions of hectors of forest that is being used traditionally as energy source. Geothermal energy will further save about 6 million metric tonnes of CO2 emission(0.13 tonnes CO2 per capita) in Tanzania and protect the ice-cap over the Mt Kilimanjaro. The forthcoming ArGeo C5 conference is going to be a hot geothermal platform for discussions on geothermal development in East Africa with participation from all the Heads of Govt. from Africa. Soon East Africa is going to be energy independent and free from carbon emissions. Perhaps, we can once again see thick ice cap over Kilimanjaro!! When oil rich countries are looking at geothermal energy resources to reduce CO2 emissions and to conserve oil reserves by reducing domestic consumption, other non OECD countries will definitely develop this source to reduce oil imports to increase its GDP and become energy independent. EGS will do this trick in the coming decade.
Kenya has accelerated its geothermal development activities and embarked on “Make In Kenya” slogan. It is not just a slogan like what India is doing, it has implemented a policy to attract industries to establish their factories within the Kenya rift valley where cheap electricity is available. Thus VF Corporation, a Worldwide Apparel and Footwear Company with more than 30 brands, 60,000 associates and US$12.3 billion in revenue is establishing its manufacturing facilities in Naivasha, Kenya. This was done within in a month. All the major geothermal companies are flocking around the rift valley, extending from AFAR depression to Tanzania. Earth’s heat is available for free!! The Indian bureaucrats who stated that “mining earth’s heat will cool the earth shortly and thus is not permitted and illegal” should go and witness and feel the heat– both natural and industrial heat. Earth’s heat can support supply of base load electricity. And now that EGS is taking off, India with its huge granite resources should be able to generate energy equivalent to 3.133 x 1022 BTU (British Thermal Units). The advantage India has is the extent of granite basement, depth at which the granite occur, top thermal insulation and stress pattern. Power generation estimates from the granites from several states in India has been made and published. Geothermal companies around the world are keen in confirming these numbers for the sake of investment. When this happens in the near future, India’s billion young minds will glow with ideas ….The future is bright.
VF Corporation, a Worldwide Apparel and Footwear Company with more than 30 brands, 60,000 associates and US$12.3 billion in revenue is heading towards Naivasha, Kenya. The reason…….availability of cheap electricity generated from Olkaria geothermal power plant. what an amazing and clever move by the Kenyan Govt. and VFC. It is a win-win situation. Plans are drawn by the Kenyan Govt. to set up major industrial park in the coming years near Naivasha.
An official of a textile company said” this place is strategically located where transmission lines are not needed and the electricity is very cheap”. A trade delegation from USA, China, Australia, The Netherlands and Bangladesh finds this place is mush attractive compared to Tanzania and Ethiopia. Ethiopia may provide cheap labour but the electricity is not as cheap as in Naivasha because of the low cost provided by geothermal power and elimination of transmission costs. This proves that geothermal is any day cheaper than other renewables like hydro, solar and wind. Nothing can came anywhere near geothermal power. The cost of power is low because the heat source is free and so the land requirement and minimum requirement of fresh water. How many of us realized this truth? Policy makers and administrators run behind solar PV that memorizes them but without any success. Sun Edison case in India cannot be forgotten. They bid for Rs 4.30 for unit and have no bank balance to even install the panel and started auctioning the bids. Who is fooling whom? Take the case of Puga and Chumatang geothermal sites. In spite of repeated requests and meetings and submitting DPRs, the govt. or the army are not interested in utilizing the geothermal energy for power generation to support their army establishments and cultivate food using greenhouse facilities using geothermal energy. Truck loads of diesel and food are transported for long distances to Leh to support army establishments. Under sea level conditions 1 L of diesel will emit 8 kg of CO2. At higher altitudes fuels burning efficiency is low and thus > 8 kg/L of CO2 is emitted. This has disaster effect on the ice caps of the Himalayas. Who cares!! What vested interest each one has is unknown. When countries like Kenya is establishing industries supported by geothermal power, why can’t India do it? Now that the present govt. promoting renewables, it will have a look at geothermal potential. Even the potential is 1000 MWe, it is worth it rather than talking about GW of power from solar pv. This is a wide talk in the air and people should know the ground truth. Very few have a knowledge related to geothermal in India. They were never consulted. several quacks with shallow knowledge are in the committees constituted by the govt. on renewables. And they are invited to give lectures in workshops. It is a pity. Scientists occupying high level post in govt. organizations like renewable energy institutes in Gujarat have no idea as how to calculate tariff structure for electricity generated by geothermal. They float numbers. By keeping right people at the right place, things will progress. What we need is low level committees with high level intelligence rather than high level committees with low level intelligence. Kenya realized it and one has to wait when India will follow!!!
Finland:
Finland which supports its total energy share of 1.3% by wind is turning to geothermal. Wind power is the most popular energy resource among Finnish public. 260 turbines generates about 1005 MWe and public investment in wind energy is quite large. Fossil fuel is the main source of energy for district heating in Finland. But now the country is looking at geothermal as a energy source mix for district heating system. A district heating project is advancing in FINLAND by extracting heat from granites at 7 km depth! A press release states that geothermal district heating is new to the country and will revolutionize district heating system in Finland. This pilot project is located in Espoo and the project got full support from the ministry of Employment and Economy in the form of investment subsidy. The main goal of this project is capacity building and to increase the expertise in the field of geothermal heat production from deeper depths for future district heating and reduce dependency on fossil fuels and mitigate CO2 emissions. The project was also chosen as the best innovation project for district heating using geothermal of the year 2015. “The pilot project can offer a renewable, emission-free source of energy for district heat production, and it can be linked directly into the existing district heat network,” said Director of Renewable Energy of St1 Jari Suominen. This project is executed by Strada Energy and St1 Deep Heat. The technology used is fluid hammer operating system in combination with percussion technique that enables quick way to drill 7000 m total measured depth wells into granite. This shows that countries are going to any extent to tap the heat from the interior of the earth to reduce GHG emissions and provide clean and cheap energy to the millions. Geothermal systems work 365 days in an year with >90% efficiency. No batteries and storage devices are required and the geothermal power systems are stand alone unlike other renewables. Land requirement for geothermal is small unlike wind and solar PV systems. Back-up power is not required for geothermal.
Oil rich countries too are looking at geothermal to reduce CO2 emissions and lower extraction of fossil fuels there by extending the life of the reservoirs and to reduce domestic consumption of oil and gas by using geothermal energy.
India too has huge geothermal resources in the form of hydrothermal and EGS systems. Had such systems exists in Finland, then Finland would have supported the entire country’s energy need by geothermal. Technology, manpower and scientific expertise is available in India. Power secretaries were briefed about this source of energy. Power ministers and Chief ministers are briefed and were enlightened the advantages of using geothermal energy as a source mix. Army chiefs were briefed and defence ministers were briefed to support geothermal for greenhouse cultivation and electricity in places like Chumathang, Leh. Yet, policy makers and administrators have no clue of the operation of geothermal systems. In the case of geothermal power generation, capital investments are small compared to thermal projects where huge amounts are spent. When huge amounts are spent, a small percent of cuts will make people rich. When GGA is signed by a large number of countries during the CoP 21 meet in December 2015 in Paris, India is not seen anywhere near except an IGA Board Member being a party to this GGA.
Future of geothermal
“The outlook for the geothermal industry in 2016 is positive” said President of Geothermal Resources Council, USA, Paul Brophy. According to Ruggero Bertani, geothermal business development manager, ENEL, the installed capacity will jump to 21.5 GWe from the existing 12.6 MWe in 2017and will further show a large annual increase by 2020. With the formation of the Global Geothermal Alliance during the recently concluded Paris CoP21 meeting in December. a five- fold increase in global installed capacity is expected by 2020. Very soon Indonesia and Mexico will excel in installation capacity and continue to be the leaders in this industry. China has already drafted plans to tap the EGS sources in the Himalayan geothermal belt to support its proposed Silk road project. China is looking at developing a 800 MWe from EGS along the Silk Road. India with its limping attitude will soon realize what the country has lost due to its inability to develop the potential geothermal zones in the Himalayas.
The GGA realized that despite solid geothermal energy potential in 90 countries, only 24 countries could realize its full potential due to the existing sound policy, licensing structure and financial support from the banks and other institutions. The GGA is planning to have an advisory service to enable regulatory and institutional framework and promote investments. It will also come out with a sound policy to mitigate risk mechanisms. The initiative taken by the climate policy in September 2015 will help the geothermal industry to raise public finance to US$ 73 billion.
The Asian Development Bank created in October 2015, US$ 500 million loan programme to support geothermal in Indonesia. Similarly the Inter American Development Bank and the Caribbean Development Bank will support the East Caribbean geothermal development programme with a loan package of US$ 1 million. During the Paris meeting, an alliance of 54 countries, known as the African Union pledged US$ 20 billion to support geothermal industry in EAR valley and north Africa. Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia are seriously looking at the geothermal potential it has along the Red Sea coast. In a recent paper in the Journal African Earth Sciences, the geothermal energy development along the Red Sea coast will support large scale demand of fresh water for the growing populations of all the Gulf countries and substantially increase the agricultural products like wheat and barley for Saudi Arabia and make these countries food secured. This energy is best suited to mitigate climate change and supply base load electricity for the asking and energise all the developing countries around the Red Sea. The project costs, unit power cost, land cost, supply statistics land requirement appearing in all the reports are all realistic figures and no tags attached. Unlike other renewables, geothermal is stand alone source. No back up batteries are needed. No sunlight is needed. Not only power, this source can support space heating and cooling and reduce the cost of electricity bills by 60-70% in addition to cutting the CO2 emissions to minimum. Due to unrealistic barriers and ignorance of the policy makers and administrators, geothermal is not in the limelight in India alone.
Now countries are looking at geothermal energy to desalinate sea water to meet the growing demand of fresh water from domestic, agricultural and industrial sectors. Due to drastic decline in piezometric surfaces and all the aquifers are being trans-boundary in nature, especially in all the Gulf countries, the future war will be fought for water. For example, at the current level of abstraction, the the Saq-Ram aquifer, one of the major aquifers extending between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, may yield water only for the next 30 years only. Hence, countries have no option but to process the sea water. At present freshwater processed from sea requires 134 x 106 kWh of electricity to provide 275 L/day per pita fresh water to Saudi Arabian population. This leaves a large volume of CO2 into the atmosphere because energy intensive multistage flash desalination process is used that requires > 10 TWh of electricity to desalinate 1 m3 of sea water. Currently 33 desalination plants are running in Saudi Arabia. Cost of desalinated water is heavily subsidised by the government. While the actual cost of desalinated water is around US$ 6/m3, the subsidised water that is being supplied by the Saudi Arabia is 0.03 US$/m3. This cost will not sustain for long considering the future volume of water requirement by domestic and agricultural sectors as the demand is directly linked to the population growth.
For Saudi Arabia the most efficient and cost effective method to generate fresh water from the sea is to adopt desalination technology supported by renewable energy sources like solar or geothermal. Solar pv is not cost effective and needs supporting facilities while geothermal can supply baseload power and does not require back-up power (like batteries) and the system can work at > 90 % all the year. Due to shortage of water, Saudi Arabia is importing large quantity of wheat and barley. This is an alarming situation. Country’s cannot vest food security with other countries. By utilizing geothermal energy about 517 x 1016 L/day of fresh water can be generated through desalination. While the current consumption of water by domestic and agricultural sectors in Saudi Arabia is 23640 x 109 L/y, geothermal energy can generated almost three to four times this quantity through desalination process.
A wakeup call is given by the 2015 December CoP21 meet in Paris by signing GGA by all the countries. Countries have realized that future energy lies below our feet. It is wise to harness it instead of looking at imported and unrealistic energy sources.
GGA
Finally geothermal is in the saddle for renewables. At the recently concluded CoP 21 (December 7,2015), countries across the world unanimously endorsed that future energy needs will be provided by geothermal energy sources (hydrothermal and EGS). Global geothermal alliance is formed. IRENA facilitated the initiative where 38 countries are members. Over 20 development and industrial partners have come together to deploy geothermal energy in all the sectors..i.e. domestic, industrial, transport, agriculture and water resources sectors. “Geothermal has proven its potential to be part of both the global climate and energy action agenda. While geothermal can provide baseload power at some of the lowest costs for any power source, it remains under-developed. The Global Geothermal Alliance (GGA) will provide a platform for partners to share best practices, further reduce costs and get the most benefit out of this sustainable energy resource.” said IRENA Director-General Adnan Z. Amin.
Excerpts from the Joint Communique issued by the Global Geothermal Alliance on the occasion of 21 st meting of CoP of UNFCCC : The full report can be accessed from UNFCCC web site or the CoP web site or IEA website.
Geothermal energy is a proven clean energy technology that provides stable and affordable electricity and offers flexibility and direct use of geothermal heat in domestic, commercial and industrial sectors, yet the modest pace of its deployment hinders reaping the potentially game changing benefits of geothermal technologies.
Despite the vast global identified geothermal energy resources potential in nearly 90 countries, only 24 countries are producing geothermal electricity. This is about six per cent of the estimated global geothermal power potential.
Shortage of skilled professionals, policy uncertainty, environmental concerns, licensing delays, and delay in deploying dedicated transmission infrastructure are main barriers in geothermal development. There is a lack of awareness and limited information about geothermal technologies are preventing geothermal growth.
It took nearly decades for the communities to realize the potential of geothermal. Geothermal energy is cost effective, needs less land area, can provide 24×7 baseload electricity, and works at >90 % efficiency. Does not require back up power or batteries unlike solar pv. The pay-back period is about 4 to 5 years. The power plants can work for > 30 years. Today geothermal is generating over 12000 MWe of electricity and large number of homes are geothermally heated.
All countries are energy hungry. As we produce more and more, we consume even more and more. The NOCs have become more stronger, thus diluting the powers of erstwhile seven sisters….BP, ESSO, Gulf Oil, Mobil, RDS,SC, Texaco who subsequently reorganised to form supermajors. With the govts funding large projects, the NOCs have become less dependent on SMs. With advancement of technology, once held view” oil reserve will decline in future” has become a myth in some minds. With the know-how of “open secret” extraction technology the NOCs have the opportunity to explore and exploit unexplored horizons below the earth. Countries like Saudi Arabia, Russia and other Gulf countries who controls the world oil market continue to do so. But there will be a limit and cost for every drop oil extracted in future. With increase in the use of cars, demand for oil to drive them will increase from the present 60% demand. The question is whether to be happy at our new technologies that is able to provide more and more oil or conserve the reserves by using energy source mix through other energy sources like geothermal? With increase in the use of fossil fuels, the future generation is at risk and have to face adverse climatic conditions that is debated and re-debated by all the countries under the UNFCCC umbrella.
Are we really justified to do this? There is alternate solution to tide over this crisis for the future generation. Franking and cracking and enhanced oil recovery technologies through polymers may meet immediate demand and establishes human’s “super-power’. But, at the end of the day, these are detrimental to the subsurface environment and. If advance country are doing, that is because they have land at their disposal. But countries of non-OECD group need caution in exercising these option when there is good viable option available in hand. When Earth is providing sufficient oil and gas for the mankind to live, the same earth is also providing heat to use it. Even if every country can use 5 percent of its energy needs from geothermal, the countries and prosper and achieve the current GDP and breath clean air. It is a question of mind set and priorities. Our priority should not be to be over smart by implementing super technologies to maintain the GDP but to be smart in maintaining sustainable development with the same technologies we have. There are activities that can use energy sources other than oil and gas. Countries have to strengthen these technologies.
The recent global climate change meeting that concluded in Paris recently (CoP 21 December 2015) made a big thrust on geothermal by endorsing Goble Geothermal Alliance. Finally wisdom prevailed and thus GGA formed. Countries are looking at various sources of heat below the ground to extract. EGS is the future. Drilling technology has supported EGS to a large extent and today countries are looking at deeply buried, high heat generating granites below the sedimentary cover for energy. Technology is emerging to extract heat from such granites through circulating CO2. This is a win-win situation……reduce CO2 to control the climate and to use the same gas to extract heat from the granites to generate power. We have no better option than this. R and D in hydro fracturing is at its peak now with countries taking the challenges and generating electricity from granites. To count a few, Indian granites have the potential to generate energy equivalent to 3.133 x 1022 BTU. Even if 2 % of this energy is extracted, it will do wonders. This will control CO2 emission on one side and allow countries to utilize their oil reserves for a longer period than that envisaged by a few pundits. This especially true with respect to the oil giants like Saudi Arabia and other gulf countries. These countries do have reasonable reserves of geothermal resources awaiting utilization. The land requirement for geothermal power plants are small compared to other renewable like solar pv and wind. Geothermal power plants need 1 acre/MWe, while solar pv and wind need 7 and 3 acre/MWe respectively.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has released a new report focusing on an area located in southern California’s Imperial Valley. The analysis shows that the geothermal potential of the Salton Sea region is about 1800 MW.
Countries are enhancing the project work on geothermal to offset part of fossil fuels use and to reduce CO2 emissions. The catch word for the future is energy mix to support sustainable development.
Although India has a large geothermal potential, lack of knowledge and awareness among the policy makers and renewable energy agencies of the states and centre becoming a big barriers for developing this clean and free source energy. Since this energy is clean, provides 24 x 7 uninterrupted supply with >90% efficiency and with affordable unit cost, it has an initial premium value. All good things comes with a premium!! Not only power, geothermal supports space cooling and heating, dehydration, green house cultivation and aquaculture. Cold regions like Ladakh that imports fuel and food from other states has huge geothermal resources. By the time our pundits realize and implement the development policy for geothermal, our neighbouring country will harness all the available resources for “Silk Road” development. The entire Himalayan geothermal belt is a potential power warehouse waiting to be harnessed. Repeated requests from GeoSyndicate Power Pvt. Ltd, to develop the Himalayan geothermal resources did not attract attention from the energy pundits. Geothermal power does not need subsidy. People at the helm of affairs do not understand basics of earth system. They have no idea about the earth’s internal dynamics and processes. Many think geothermal means thermal and expect huge investments. The govt. should have a strong technocrats in its advisory committee. Old and obsolete methods and men should be replaced by dynamic and innovative minds. When ARMACO is thinking of geothermal to reduce domestic oil and gas consumption, there is reason why countries like India should sit back and let out huge volumes of CO2 into the atmosphere.
The 2 D, 4 D and 6 D scenarios are debated again and again and this will be revised in the forthcoming meeting in Paris by the global stalwarts, energy think tanks and the policy makers. Under INDCs countries are smartly prepared to show how committed they are in controlling emissions. Recently China published a paper on the amount of CO2 uptake by plants and calculated the amount of CO2 emissions that will be decreased if the number of such plants are grown in plenty. A new terminology thus was born….called the “afforestation engineering”. China has drafted the numbers for the meeting. The data shows that carbon savings has grown from 0.2 Pg in 1980 to 1.03 Pg of C in 2008. The total investment made by China in this “engineering” from 2001 to 2010 is 436 billion RMB. The total carbon sink value at the rate of US$ 30/t (Finland value) is about 190 billion RMB (about 43%). The total carbon sink amounts to 2% of the industrial emissions from 1981 to 2008. These numbers are documented and published in a peer reviewed international journals. India too played with numerology and jumped simply from MW to GW in a jiffy time with solar pv. It is easy to change the alphabets if one knows English. To generate 1 MW of power from solar pv the land required is about 7 acres. This number is published!! A smart kid in a school asked the teacher how many sq km of land is required to generate 1 GW of power from solar pv. Of course the kid did not wait for the answer and made a simple multiplication and came out with 29 sq km. figure to support 1 GW of power based on solar pv. If we are talking about 100 GW from solar pv, then we need several Mumbais, several Gandhinagars and alike. For example, the area of Mumbai is 603 sq km, Ahmadabad:464 sq.km, Gandhinagar: 177 sq.km, Jaipur: 112 sq.km, Udaipur: 37 sq.km, Thar Desert: 320 000 sq.km. Solar pv is not simply spreading the panels and connect the bulbs. The panels need cleaning. Imagine cleaning the panels spread over an area of 2900 sq.km that is producing 100 GW of power! But then if we take these number to the Paris meeting, people will mock at us. Where is the water to clean the panels coming from. We have no numbers to support. As it was said earlier, we should be like cuckoos and not like pigeons. We should say that we will bring Ganga to clean instead of saying cleaning Ganga. Hope India will see several Bhagirathas in future to answer such questions in climate change meetings.
In a recent article, a well known scientist in Copenhagen Business School said, the outcome of the forthcoming meeting in Paris will be a reduction of global temperature only by 0.05 C by 2100. The truth lies in reports published by the International Energy Agency that monitors these numbers and claims globally. IEA documents that “the cost of wind and solar will remain higher than the average generation cost even in 2020” Solar energy is expected to produce only 7 % of electricity in India and provides only 1 % of primary energy supply to India. The article further states that at present India gets only 0.02 % of power from solar and even in 2020 this number will not go beyond 1.3 % . India’s energy demand is going to be 150 % in the next two decades. Can solar create GWs in the next two decades……a question to be answered by the energy pundits…..not in India but across the countries gathering in Paris in December 2015. India has to look into other option that are side tracked due to reasons unknown to a common man. Why gas fired power plants are kept in the cold storage and why geothermal energy is not figuring anywhere in renewable energy options? Such meetings are held at regular intervals only to change strategy of numbers and not to work out a serious solution that is viable and sensible. In this context it is very amusing to read a news item related to solar pv tender floated by the Andhra Pradesh Govt. One solar company signs a PPA for 500 MW with the Govt. to sell power at Rs 4.63. Within a week this company plans to sell 400 MWe. Very surprising. If the company is not able to sustain this unit cost, then why in the first place compete with others! If solar pv is so lucrative and the entire country is chanting solar pv mantra, then the bidder should not even dream of selling this lucrative stake!! Similar is the case with another major solar company which ran into debt of Rs 6500 cr and wants to sell the company. Even after 8 years of existence, this company is not able to break even. Something is fishy. Is solar all about land deals?
Developed countries talk big and impress the small countries with big numbers like how we talk in India. According to the article cited above, the United States of America “promises” to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 26-28 %, compared to 2005 levels, ( It is now known why this can not be 25-30%!!) by 2025. According to the Stanford Energy Modelling Forum, this will reduce the US GDP by US$ 154 to172 billion annually. Similarly the EU promises to cut the emissions by 40% below 1990 level by 2030. This will reduce its GDP 1.6 % in 2030. If this is so then there is nothing wrong in India changing its strategy from M to G in all the forthcoming climate meetings. The life of the common man never changes whether it is M or G. If he is able to buy a kilo of onions at 25 Rs today, then that is the time “his” climate changes. One cannot talk about CO2 emissions and climate change to a starving person…can we.