San Jacinto project in Nicaragua plans drilling of two additional wells

Plant in San Jacinto Tizate, Nicaragua (source: PowerEngineers)

Francisco Rojas 19 Mar 2015

In the third quarter of the year, the geothermal power plant San Jacinto Tizate aims to make a huge investment to drill two new wells and overcome 77 gross megawatts of installed capacity.

Antonio Valle Duarte, general manager of Polaris Energy Nicaragua, said that from 2010 to 2013 they have invested over four million dollars in geothermal.

“The field of San Jacinto Tizate is estimated to have a potential of 160 megawatts, with 77 megawatts output, and out of those, 56 megawatts are billed at $ 115 a megawatt hour is exploited. This leaves an annual profit of one million dollars per megawatt generated, “Duarte said.

The main obstacle facing the country in geothermal power generation are the high costs of drilling and there is little guarantee of optimal resource exploration.

In San Jacinto Tizate there are eight production wells, four brine injection wells, an injector well for condensate, a monitoring well and three wells have been abandoned after failing to find an adequate output.

Duarte explains that the drilling of a well can cost between six and eight million, but besides being expensive, there is a forty percent chance that drilling is unsuccessful.

“The main problem we face is the risk of perforation, there is a technical risk that can not be controlled, however there is a global trend of trying to mitigate risk through a delegation of the World Bank. We are currently looking for a line of credit but no local bank dares to finance such projects” he added.

Source: La Prensa