Geothermal energy is considered a renewable natural resource that is owned and managed by the State, given that according to Decree-Law of all natural renewable resources belong to the nation. Management of such resources is assigned to a governmental entity the Ministry of the Environment. In order to use and exploit geothermal resources, it is necessary to obtain legal permits, concessions, and environmental licenses Marzolf ; Hurtado The surveying, pre-feasibility, and feasibility studies that are required prior to building and operating a plant require some degree of legal security in terms of use of the resource, because they involve substantial capital investments and high levels of risk.
It is therefore important to obtain the required permits before undertaking geothermal exploration. Decree of the national code on natural and renewable resources and environmental protection defines the permits that are required to begin exploration of natural resources with the objective of exploiting them. However, the duration of such permits is only 2 years, which is generally considered insufficient for geothermal exploration, which could take up to 5 years to cover all aspects including pre-feasibility and feasibility studies.
According to Law of , a concession must be obtained in order to use and exploit geothermal sources: any individual, legal entity or partnership, public or private, that wishes to generate hydraulic, kinetic or electric energy must request a concession, and the concession for the use of water as a geothermal source is to be granted along with the concession for use of the geothermal resources.
The environmental parameters the projects must fulfill are issued by the national government through the Ministry of the Environment and Sustainable Development UPME ; Hurtado Even though geothermal energy is considered a clean, renewable, and environmentally viable technology for the production of electricity, it clearly has particularities that require designing and implementing environmental management measures in all stages of the process.
For this reason, Colombian legislation establishes that obtaining an environmental permit is a mandatory requirement for the use of geothermal resources.
The Law on the Rational Use of Energy Law of promotes the rational and efficient use of energy and the use of alternative energy sources, among other provisions.
Article 2 of said law establishes that the state has the duty of establishing the regulations required to make the use of renewable energy sources viable Marzolf In order to review the status of geothermal electricity generation projects in Colombia, first we must point out the stages of development for the commercial operation of a geothermal power plant.
Figure 4 displays the phases and estimated times required to build a geothermal project. The process begins with a survey to recognize, identify, and select potential areas, including an analysis of environmental restrictions. It is followed by a pre-feasibility stage, which includes a series of studies geological, geochemical, and geophysical , establishment of the thermal gradient, and development of the geothermal model. The pre-feasibility stage lasts approximately 2.
Afterwards, during the feasibility stage, exploratory drilling is performed, usually by means of wells at depths of 2—3 km; during this stage the deposit is evaluated; technical and economic viability studies are prepared, and a plant design is developed. During the development stage, the production and re-injection wells are drilled and the pipelines and generation plant are installed, to finally reach commercial operation, as indicated in Fig.
As mentioned in the section above, it is of utmost importance to secure the necessary permits for development in a timely way. Failure to do so could cause substantial delays in the development process. To date, there are no geothermal power plants in operation in Colombia. Figure 5 displays the areas with geothermal potential in Colombia, where the green dots represent areas where exploration is currently being carried out by companies to generate electricity; the orange areas are in the pre-feasibility stage and are under study by government entities; the dark red areas have geothermal development potential and the yellow areas are those with substantial geothermal anomalies.
West JEC and Schlumberger. Figure 6 shows the location of both power generation projects. Based on the forecast figure for , an estimate was calculated on the participation of geothermal energy as a contributor to electricity supply in the country. It is important to keep in mind that in addition to the areas where pre-feasibility studies for the use of this resource for generation of electricity are currently under way, as mentioned earlier, there are other areas that are suitable for electric power generation and where it might be worthwhile to promote geothermal projects to benefit the regions and diversify electricity supplies in Colombia.
Taking into consideration the main geothermal projects in Colombia, and assuming that the geothermal plant at the Nevado del Ruiz Volcanic Mountain will come to operation in , and assuming, based on normal development times for a geothermal power plant, that the bi-national project with Ecuador will be in operation by , the combined capacity of both plants would be MW by , which adjusted by a generation factor of 0.
This would imply that geothermal energy would account for 1. Pre-feasibility-stages studies are beginning for the geothermal areas of Paipa, Azufral Volcano, and San Diego maar. Preliminary conceptual models have been developed for the geothermal resources in these volcanic zones, leading to the characterization of the areas as being of great interest for geothermal power generation, presented to the World Geothermal Congress Colombia is an attractive country in terms of geothermal energy because it has close to 15 active and numerous inactive volcanoes, and its location on the Pacific Fire Ring is an advantage in terms of making use of geothermal resources, because the thermal gradients are above normal.
Developing the technical and scientific training of personnel in geothermal resources will also help in accelerating development. Alfaro C. Improvement of perception of the geothermal energy as a potential source of electrical energy in Colombia.
Renewable energy. Biofuels: Ethanol and Biomass-based diesel. Also in Hydropower explained Hydropower Where hydropower is generated Hydropower and the environment Tidal power Wave power Ocean thermal energy conversion. Also in Biofuels explained Biofuels Ethanol Use and supply of ethanol Ethanol and the environment Biomass-based diesel fuels Use of biomass-based diesel fuel Biomass-based diesel and the environment.
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There are three main types of geothermal energy systems: Direct use and district heating systems Geothermal power plants Geothermal heat pumps Direct use and district heating systems Direct use and district heating systems use hot water from springs or reservoirs located near the surface of the earth. States with geothermal power plants in State share of total U. Also on Energy Explained U. Does EIA publish the location of electric power plants and transmission lines? Dry steam power plants at The Geysers in California.
Dry steam plants use hydrothermal fluids that are primarily steam. The steam travels directly to a turbine, which drives a generator that produces electricity. The steam eliminates the need to burn fossil fuels to run the turbine also eliminating the need to transport and store fuels. These plants emit only excess steam and very minor amounts of gases. Flash Steam Power Plant Flash steam plants are the most common type of geothermal power generation plants in operation today.
Resources U. Hot water is pumped from deep underground through a well under high pressure. When the water reaches the surface, the pressure is dropped, which causes the water to turn into steam. The steam spins a turbine, which is connected to a generator that produces electricity. The steam cools off in a cooling tower and condenses back to water. The cooled water is pumped back into the Earth to begin the process again.
Water or a refrigerant moves through a loop of pipes. When the weather is cold, the water or refrigerant heats up as it travels through the part of the loop that's buried underground. Once it gets back above ground, the warmed water or refrigerant transfers heat into the building.
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