Tue, 17 October, 2023
Demonstrations of the GeoSmart project innovations have begun in a high-enthalpy geothermal field in Turkey.
GeoSmart technology is now in place at a demonstration site at the Kızıldere-2 triple flash and binary plant at Zorlu, Turkey, with a second due to be installed in Germany.
The project aims to optimise and innovate improvements to the flexibility and efficiency of geothermal heat and power systems.
Due to be implemented in two working geothermal power plants, these two variants address the different flexibility needs of low-to-high enthalpy CHP provision.
The Kızıldere-2 triple flash and binary plant at Zorlu, Turkey, is now serving as the high-enthalpy geothermal plant for the demonstration of a Phase Change Based (PCM)-based thermal storage system and a silica scaling retention system to increase geothermal energy efficiencies.
About GeoSmart
Having begun in 2019, the GeoSmart project is now entering its final phase, with work now in progress to demonstrate the project objective to improve the strategic flexibility of geothermal installations, promoting them as significant energy sources over the next 20-30 years.
The Importance and Promise of Geothermal Energy
Geothermal energy promises to deliver affordable, clean energy to meet global sustainability goals, with geothermal resources spread across the globe and now used by around 80 different nations.
However, geothermal resource use varies according to country, with nations like France, Turkey and the UK using unconventional crystalline basements while Germany, The Netherlands, Poland and Denmark opting for sedimentary reservoirs, and Iceland, Italy, Indonesia, New Zealand, the Philippines and the USA using more conventional volcanic geothermal systems.
The main challenge of geothermal energy remains in the high upfront and operational costs, which have slowed market uptake in comparison to solar and wind power. There are also still some public reservations over connecting to seismic activities for energy provision.
The GeoSmart project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme grant agreement 818576