Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Taiwan: 11 MW Wujie Geothermal Power Project to be Completed by 2025

Geothermal holds huge promise (Taipei Times)

A comprehensive exploratory survey carried out by researchers estimated that Taiwan has a total geothermal power potential of up to 714 MW.

In April, the Environmental Protection Administration announced that Taiwan’s first geothermal power plant would be built in the Lize Industrial Zone in Yilan County’s Wujie Township (五結). It is estimated that, after construction is completed in 2025, the plant’s electric power generation capacity could reach 11 MW, so that it could supply 800 gigawatt-hours of electricity annually.

According to the plan, 11 geothermal wells are to be drilled in the industrial zone. The plant will use advanced geothermal power generation technology that extracts heat without extracting water. That is to say that water is injected deep into the earth, where it is heated to a high temperature before being circulated through a boiler, heating water in the boiler pipes to produce water vapor that drives a turbine to generate electricity.

This method avoids excessive consumption of geothermal resources, thus continuously sustaining the geothermal power plant’s operating efficiency.