Efficiency Of Geothermal Power Plants A

Geothermics 51 (2014) 142–153

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Geothermics journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/geothermics

Review

Efficiency of geothermal power plants: A worldwide review
Sadiq J. Zarrouk a,∗ , Hyungsul Moon b a b

Department of Engineering Science, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand
Mighty River Power, 283 Vaughan Rd, PO Box 245, Rotorua 3040, New Zealand

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 1 August 2013
Accepted 11 November 2013
Available online 15 January 2014
Keywords:
Geothermal power plants
Conversion efficiency
Dry steam
Single flash
Double flash
Binary and hybrid plants

a b s t r a c t
The conversion efficiency of geothermal power developments is generally lower than that of all conventional thermal power plants. Confusion can be found in literature concerning the estimation of this conversion efficiency. Geothermal power plants conversion efficiency estimates that is based on the enthalpy of the produced geothermal fluid can be the most desirable for use during the first estimates of power potential of new wells and for resource estimation studies.
The overall conversion efficiency is affected by many parameters including the power plant design
(single or double flash, triple flash, dry steam, binary, or hybrid system), size, gas content, dissolved minerals content, parasitic load, ambient conditions and other parameters.
This work is a worldwide review using published data from 94 geothermal plants (6 dry-steam, 34 single flash, 18 double flash, 31 binary, 2 hybrid steam-binary and 1 triple flash plant) to find conversion efficiencies based on the reservoir enthalpy.
The highest reported conversion efficiency is approximately 21% at the Darajat vapour-dominated system, with a worldwide efficiency average of around 12%. The use of binary plants in low-enthalpy resources has allowed the use of energy from fluid with enthalpy as low as 306 kJ/kg, resulting in a net conversion efficiency of

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