Costarica

The Central American volcanic belt (пояс) passes through Costa Rica, evidenced by numerous volcanoes and a number of geothermal fields. In March 1994, a 55 MWe geothermal power station was brought into service at a site close to the Miravalles volcano, in the north-west of the republic. In January 1995, the 5 MWe Boca de Pozo plant came into operation at the same field. The construction of Miravalles II, with a projected capacity of 55 MWe, is under way; completion was sched­uled for end-2004.

EL SALVADOR

As does Costa Rica, El Salvador lies on the Central American vol­canic belt. Geothermal exploration began in 1954 and the first of its geothermal power plants came on line in 1975 at Ahuachapan (30 MWe), in the west of the republic near the border with Guate­mala. Further units were added in 1976 (30 MWe) and 1980 (35 MWe), bringing total generating capacity at Ahuachapan up to 95 MWe. The Berlin geothermal field in the eastern part of the republic was ex­plored from the 1960's onwards, eventually leading to the installation of two 5 MWe back-pressure plants in 1992. At first only one plant was run at a time but the drilling of additional wells now enables the two units to be run simultaneously.

1 - теплосодержание, теплоемкость; 2 — жалобы; 3 — тормозить

Iceland

Geothermal energy has been utilized on a commercial scale since 1930. Currently the resource is mainly used for space heating, with electricity generation being of fairly small significance (reflecting Ice­land's wealth of hydroelectric resources).

Two conventional geothermal power plants are in operation - Krafla, 30 MWe and Namafjall, 3 MWe. In addition, pioneering development work on the cogeneration of heat (district heating) and electricity has been undertaken. At present two cogeneration plants are in operation: Svartsengi (16.4 MWe), where both single flash and binary turbines are in use, and Nesjavellir (60 MWe), where it is expected that production of electricity will begin during 1998.

Geothermal energy supplied nearly 7% of Iceland's electricity in 1996 and its utilization was as follows: electricity and CHP, 56%; di­rect use for space heating, 28%; industrial use, 6%; greenhouses, 4%; swimming pools, 3%; fish farming, 2% and snow-melting, 1%.

About 85% of households are supplied with geothermal heating, mostly via large district heating schemes such as that in Reykjavik, which serves about 150,000 people.

Indonesia

The islands of Indonesia possess enormous geothermal resources: geological surveys have identified 217 geothermal prospects, including a

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Section II. Supplementary Reading

total of 142 high-temperature reservoirs with an estimated resource po­tential of over 16,000 MWe. Of this potential, about 50% is in Java/Bali and 30% Sumatra. The first geothermal power plant to come into oper­ation was a 2 MWe pilot plant' at Dieng (central Java), installed in 1981. A 30 MWe plant came on-line at Kamojang in west Java in 1983 and was augmented²by two units, each of 55 MWe, in 1988. In 1994 two 55 MWe units were installed at Salak and another of the same capacity at Dara-jat, both fields in Java. Total geothermal capacity at the end of 1996 stood at 308 MWe; the electricity generated in 1996 amounted to 2340 GWh, the fourth highest geothermal output in the world.

Four more 55 MWe units came on-line at Salak in 1997, three of them in a privately-developed project involving the US company Un­ocal and PT Nusamba Geothermal. Other projects for new geother­mal capacity are reported to be on hold³, owing to the financial crisis that hit Indonesia towards the end of 1997.

1 — опытная станция; 2 — увеличена; 3 — отложены

ITALY

Italy is Europe's leading producer of geothermal electricity, with a 1996 share of about 90%. The world's first geothermal power plant was commissioned in 1904 at Larderello in Tuscany. Subsequent develop­ments at this and other sites in the same region have brought gross geo­thermal capacity to 512 MWe (at end-1996), representing 1% of Ita­ly's total electricity generating capacity.

Direct uses of geothermal heat had an aggregate installed capacity of just over 300 MWt at the end of 1996. In 1994, 57% of direct geo­thermal consumption related to baths and swimming pools, 19% to greenhouses, 16% to space heating, 7% to industrial process heat and 1 % to fish-farming. The low-medium temperature resources used for such purposes were all located north of Rome.

JAPAN

There is a long history of geothermal utilization, both direct and for power generation. The first commercial-scale geothermal power sta­tion came on-line at Matsukawa, in the north of the main island of

D. Geothermal Energy in Different Countries of the World 129

Honshu, in 1966. Following the oil crisis in the early 1970's, geother­mal development was accelerated. Generating capacity rose to 280 MWe in 1990 and has since nearly doubled, to 530 MWe at the end of 1996. The existing plants are all located in the Tohoku region of northern Honshu and on the southern island of Kyushu. Planned de­velopment of geothermal power envisages 600 MWe by 2000 and 2800 MWe by 2010.