CLEAN ENERGY FROM FILTHY WATER ARTICLE REVIEWArticle Title: Clean Energy from Filthy Water
Author/Source: Jane Braxton Little
A: List the major ideas, concepts or key points- point by point
Santa Rosa and Calpine and working together to create the world's largest geothermal wastewater-to-power project. With the use of effluent, they can clean energy that can improve life for humans. It starts out by pumping out gallons of treated wastewater through a pipeline to a mountaintop. Then, it is injected it down into an aquifer. Hot rocks boil the water into steam, which is piped to the surface to drive electricity-generating turbines. The water gets treated in a 3 step process: physical treatment in sedimentation tanks to remove grease, oil and impurities. The second step is to break down organic matter and remove nutrients and to have sand to remove the remaining organic matter and parasites. The last step is to expose the wastewater to ultraviolet light to kill any lingering bacteria. Though this method benefits humans, it can also be harmful as well. Injection of effluent into the ground has increased the rates of earthquakes around the area. A community less that a mile from the closest installation recorded 2,562 jolts and 24 magnitudes great than 4.0. Geothermal systems can produce more than 100,000 megawatts of electricity in the United States. These systems benefit residents and the environment and people all over the world can use this model to improve their own communities.
C: Write a reaction paragraph to the article stating your own thoughts on the topic, using specific citations from the article to support your views
I think that there should be geothermal plants everywhere around the world. I think that there shouldn't be one in every city, because the more geothermal plants, the more earthquakes it can cause. I think a way to solve this is to not have the piping underground. If the piping isn't underground, there is less risk of earthquakes. If there is a less risk of earthquakes, I think there should be more geothermal plants that benefit us and the environment as well. Although the mountains and the view would look ugly, I think it is for the best of humanity and the environment
So what?
Geothermal systems are a good way to produce electricity while benefiting humans and the environment
Says who?
Jane Braxton Little
Dan Carlson
Mike Sherman
What if...?
Geothermal systems increased the earthquake rate very high? Geothermal systems would be reconsidered and another way would be proposed.
What does this remind me of?
Solar panels, using things besides fossil fuels to create electricity and energy
Author/Source: Jane Braxton Little
A: List the major ideas, concepts or key points- point by point
- Santa Rosa and Calpine Corporation, an energy company are partners in the world's largest geothermal wastewater-to-power project
- They are using urban effluent to generate clean energy, improving life not only for humans but also for fish
- Santa Rosa Geysers Recharge Project pumps 12 million gallons of treated wastewater through a pipeline to a mountaintop 40 miles from the city.
- Injects it down into an aquifer. Hot rocks boil the water into steam, which is piped to the surface to drive electricity-generating turbines
- A sister project in Lake County recycles 8 million gallons of wastewater a day.
- Together, installations generate 200 megawatts of electricity-equivalent to the output of a modest-size power plant without discharging greenhouse gases or pollutants in the atmosphere
- Electricity is sent as far as San Fransisco
- Technique could supply 10% of nation's electricity by 2050
- To succeed, plans to expand drilling here to start elsewhere will have to take into account small earthquakes from extracting steam
- Benefits are many says Dan Carlson
- Other communities are exploring various styles of geothermal energy
- For Santa Rosa, the unique something is the Geysers.
- Partnership of Calpine and Santa Rosa and Lake county fixed problems of depletion of underground resources, plants running out of steam, and to find a way to dispose groundwater while meeting state environmental requirements.
- Solution was to move wastewater to where it was wanted
- First recycled-water-to-electricity project in Lake County and Santa Rosa are poised to expand
- Lake County plants to extend pipeline beyond Clear Lake to accept wastewater from Lakeport and other communities.
- Calpine entered the geothermal business in 1989 and operates 19 of 21 Geysers power plants, spread across 40 square miles of steep slopes pocked with hundreds of steam walls
- $250 million Santa Rosa project presented daunting technical challenges.
- To get wastewater from Santa Rosa to the Geysers, a pipeline passes underneath city streets, residential developments and open fields
- Engineers made pipeline as inconspicuous as possible.
- A steep single-lane road leads to the pinnacle which is dominated by a dark-green three-story tank no different form any municipal water tank except for its contents: one million gallons of wastewater
- The water has been processed in three stages along the way: physical treatment in sedimentation tanks to remove grease, oil and impurities
- Biological treatment to break down organic matter and remove nutrients and additional compounds
- and sand or activated carbon filtration to remove remaining organic matter and parasites
- Wastewater is then exposed to ultraviolet light to kill any lingering bacteria
- Calpine uses $2.5 million worth of its own geothermal electricity to pump water.
- It is a surrealistic strangely bucolic panorama disturbed only by the faint hum of engines in the breeze
- Since Calpine began injecting effluent into the ground, residents have experienced a dramatic increase in earthquakes
- A community less that a mile from the closest installation recorded 2,562 jolts and 24 magnitudes great than 4.0
- Extracting steam from a subterranean magma-heated reservoir cools it, causing rocks to contract
- Rocks deform through small earthquakes
- Will injecting greater volumes of water in more places trigger the big one? not likely
- By generating 200 megawatts of electricity from wastewater, Santa Rosa and Lake County have effectively reduced greenhouse gas emissions by two billion pounds a year
- Geothermal systems could produce more than 100,000 megawatts of electricity in the U,S
- In May 2009, the Obama administration made $350 million available for geothermal development including $80 million for enhanced geothermal projects
- Treated effluent is a commercially viable alternative to freshwater for steam-generated electricity.
- “Our residents are benefiting, the environment is benefiting and people all over the world can use this model to improve their own communities.”
Santa Rosa and Calpine and working together to create the world's largest geothermal wastewater-to-power project. With the use of effluent, they can clean energy that can improve life for humans. It starts out by pumping out gallons of treated wastewater through a pipeline to a mountaintop. Then, it is injected it down into an aquifer. Hot rocks boil the water into steam, which is piped to the surface to drive electricity-generating turbines. The water gets treated in a 3 step process: physical treatment in sedimentation tanks to remove grease, oil and impurities. The second step is to break down organic matter and remove nutrients and to have sand to remove the remaining organic matter and parasites. The last step is to expose the wastewater to ultraviolet light to kill any lingering bacteria. Though this method benefits humans, it can also be harmful as well. Injection of effluent into the ground has increased the rates of earthquakes around the area. A community less that a mile from the closest installation recorded 2,562 jolts and 24 magnitudes great than 4.0. Geothermal systems can produce more than 100,000 megawatts of electricity in the United States. These systems benefit residents and the environment and people all over the world can use this model to improve their own communities.
C: Write a reaction paragraph to the article stating your own thoughts on the topic, using specific citations from the article to support your views
I think that there should be geothermal plants everywhere around the world. I think that there shouldn't be one in every city, because the more geothermal plants, the more earthquakes it can cause. I think a way to solve this is to not have the piping underground. If the piping isn't underground, there is less risk of earthquakes. If there is a less risk of earthquakes, I think there should be more geothermal plants that benefit us and the environment as well. Although the mountains and the view would look ugly, I think it is for the best of humanity and the environment
So what?
Geothermal systems are a good way to produce electricity while benefiting humans and the environment
Says who?
Jane Braxton Little
Dan Carlson
Mike Sherman
What if...?
Geothermal systems increased the earthquake rate very high? Geothermal systems would be reconsidered and another way would be proposed.
What does this remind me of?
Solar panels, using things besides fossil fuels to create electricity and energy