New engine plans to tap hot spring for power in California
Near Cedarville, California (source: flickr/ J Brew, creative commons)
Alexander Richter
2 Jul 2013
A Californian project at the Surprise Valley Hot Springs is planning to utilize its low heat resource of 180 degrees Fahrenheit (ca. 82 degrees Celsius) to generate power with a new power engine called PwrCor.
In a release yesterday, U.S. based company Cornerstone Sustainable Energy (“CSE”) announced “it has entered into an agreement with Warner Mountain Energy Corporation to begin the first phase of development of a geothermal energy plant to be located at the Surprise Valley Hot Springs in Cedarville, California. This phase of development will include a feasibility analysis, conceptual design, and budgeting to install CSE’s PwrCor engine with required site infrastructure to generate electrical power. The electricity generated would be entirely “green”. This would be the first installation using the PwrCor engine to generate electricity by using heat from a geothermal resource.
Warner Mountain Energy owns or controls approximately 1000 acres at the Surprise Valley Hot Springs. The site has several artesian hot springs free flowing to the surface, delivering an aggregate of approximately 850 gallons per minute at 205°F. CSE will tap the hot spring water to supply heat to its PwrCor engine. CSE’s technology is projected to produce 250 kilowatts of electric power with 150 gallons per minute of water at 180°F. At that level of output, the Surprise Valley Hot Springs site represents a potential estimated at 1.5 megawatts of constant, uninterrupted electric power.
Once online, the PwrCor engine operates at input temperatures and flows that are considerably less than those required by competing technologies. The ability to operate at these lower temperature and flows enables geothermal developers to exploit resources that were previously unusable for the commercial production of electricity. The impact to the geothermal industry could be significant.”
Details about the engine can be found here.
Source: Company release via Global Newswire
