GEOTHERMAL RESOURCES 



253 



Table 49. — Principal utilization (other than for electricity) of geothermal resources 



Country 



Space heating 



Air conditioning 



Agricultural heating 



Product processing: 

 Paper 



Diatomite 



Salt 



Byproducts: 



Dry ice 



Boron 



Calcium chloride 



Iceland - 



Hungary 

 U.S.S.E 



New Zealand . 



Iceland 



U.S.S.E 



Hungary 



Japan 



Italy 



United States 



New Zealand 



Iceland 



Japan 



United States 



Italy 



United States 



Hveragerdi, Selfoss, Saudarkrokur, 



Olafsfjordur, and Dalvik. 

 Various localities 



1.08X10" cal yr-' in 1969 

 8.8X10" cal yr-i in 1969 . 



Peak load 3.9X10" cal hi-i; "Optimal 

 useful production capacity"=l.lX 

 10" cal yr-\ 



Uncertain but large .. . 



Rotorua ~960 wells • 



Klamath Falls, Oreg — ~3X10" cal yr"' 



Boise. Idaho Capability of 1-2X10' gal yr-' of 



75 °C. water. 

 Kotorua 5.8 X lO^* cal hr-i heat input to LiBr 



absorption unit. 

 Hveragerdi >9.oX10* m^ of greenhouse in 1960; 



6.3X10" cal yr-i in 1969. 

 Various localities 2X10' m'' of greenhouse in 1969 ... 



do - 



do - 



~4X10' m' of greenhouse in 1969 .. 

 -^2X10* m^ of greenhouse 



Castelnuovo 3X10' m' of greenhouse . 



Lakeview, Oreg 2.3X10= m= of greenhouse 



Kawerau ~9X10" cal yT-» 



Namafjall ~2X10i« cal yr-» 



Paimason and Zoega 

 (1970). 

 Do. 



Boldizfir (1970). 



Mskarenko and 

 others (in press), 

 Sukharev and 

 others (in press), 

 and Tikhonov and 

 DvoroT (in press). 



Burrows (1970). 



Peterson and Grob 

 (1967). 



Ko«nig (1970). 



Reynolds ( in press). 



Paimason and Zoega 



(1970). 

 Dragone and Rumi 



(in press). 

 Boldizar (1970). 

 Komagata and others 



(1970). 

 Dragone and Rumi 



(in press). 

 Head (1970). 



Calculated from 



Smfth (1970, table 



10). 

 Ragnars and othe]:s 



(1970, table 3). 

 Komagata and 



others (1970). 



Muffler and AVhite 

 (1968). 



Larderello Large production from 1810 to 1966 



Imperial Valley, Calif Uncertain but small 



1970). Geothermal energy has potential use in 

 refrigeration and freeze drying (Einarsson, 1970), 

 and some geothermal fluids contain potentially valu- 

 able byproducts, such as potassium, lithium, cal- 

 cium, and other metals (White, 1968). 



Production of fresh water by self-desalination of 

 geothermal fluids has been proposed for the Imperial 

 Valley in Southern California (Rex, 1968, 1971b) 

 and for the El Tatio geothermal field in northern 

 Chile (Barnea, 1971). Evaluation of the geothermal 

 desalination potential of the Imperial Valley is being 

 carried out jointly by the U.S. Bureau of Reclama- 

 tion and the Office of Saline Water (U.S. Bur. Recla- 

 mation, 1972), The quantities of geothermal water 

 in storage in the Imperial Valley are large (Dutcher 

 and others, 1972). If geothermal desalination proves 

 to be technologically and economically feasible, the 

 waters of the Imperial Valley may prove to be a 

 significant augmentation to the fresh water supply 

 of the southwest United States. 



ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS 



Considerable attention has been drawn to geo- 

 thermal resources as an electrical generating mode 

 that can have a relatively small effect on the en- 

 vironment. Geothermal energy does not produce 



atmospheric particulate pollutants as do fossil-fuel 

 plants, and it has no potential for radioactive pollu- 

 tion. Geothermal modes of generating electricity do 

 share with fossil-fuel and nuclear modes the poten- 

 tial for thermal pollution; indeed, the amount of 

 waste heat per unit of electricity generated is higher 

 for geothermal than for either nuclear or fossil-fuel 

 modes, owing to the low turbine efficiencies at the 

 low geothermal steam pressures. Geothermal efflu- 

 ents, as well as being warm, commonly are min- 

 eralized and thus present a chemical pollution hazard 

 to surface or ground waters. Accordingly, most if 

 not all proposed geothermal developments in the 

 United States plan to dispose of unwanted effluent 

 by reinjection into the geothermal reservoir. 



Other insults to the environment that are inherent 

 in geothermal development are in large part con- 

 trollable at reasonable costs. These include noise 

 (drifling, testing, and production), gaseous emis- 

 sions (particularly H2S), and industrial scars. In- 

 tensive geothermal exploitation may cause sub- 

 sidence, due either to fluid withdrawal (Hunt, 1970) 

 or to thermal contraction of rock as heat is with- 

 drawn. Reinjection of water in fault zones may 

 increase the incidence of earthquakes, by a mecha- 

 nism similar to that demonstrated for the Rocky 



