power and water, page-52

Gattiweb,

The rate of flow at present is just whatever comes out of the test pipe. We don't know if the tap was fully on. It is just a publicity spectacle. The underground system certainly has not been tweaked in any way to optimum. This wont be done until after the closed circulation tests. However when it is optimized the flow rate can only increase above the 23 kg/s.

During production the power produced is generally controlled by the number of turbine units in operation, i.e. N x 50MW where N can be 1 to 10 in the early phases of the project. One of the problems with coal fired power stations is that they have a long lead up time (getting the boiler going etc). Hydro generators are excellent here as they take a short time and can therefore be used for peak power periods. I'm not sure what the firing up time for geothermal generators will be. Note that if you turn the tap off all the water in the surface pipelines will begin to cool, even though they are insulated. These are very interesting practical issues.

Juke