September 18, 2006—Chena Hot Springs recently announced the successful commissioning and startup of the first geothermal power plant in Alaska . The unique 200-kilowatt power plant is reportedly the first in the world to use a new technology that makes electricity generation possible at lower temperatures—a breakthrough that the company says will make geothermal power plants feasible in a greater number of locations than today’s high-temperature technologies.
To produce power from a well with 162.5 degree Fahrenheit water, the company teamed with the Department of Energy (DOE), United Technologies, and Carrier Corporation to fashion a binary power plant from commercial air-conditioning equipment, using the air conditioning compressor as a turbine and essentially running the system in reverse.
The Pure Cycle organic rankine device was initially developed in partnership with the DOE Distributed Energy program to convert waste heat and liquid streams to power to increase system efficiency of distributed generation devices.
For more information visit Chena Hot Springs.
