Geothermal energy

Abstract

This chapter shows that geothermal electricity provides a small amount of electricity in Africa and Latin America. That is consistent with global trends, and that capacity is being developed in many countries in East Africa and Central America. All of these countries are located close to the edges of tectonic plates where high temperature geothermal resources are available near the surface. Geothermal power plants mainly use flash or binary configurations because enhanced geothermal configurations are still under development. Kenya is currently developing its own geothermal plants for increasing the availability of the resource and for exporting the technology and associated services. Heat energy obtained from shallow underground areas at nearly constant temperatures of about 60–70 °C and injected to heat pumps is not used in Africa and Latin America. However, there are options to use this geothermal heat to locate specific industries and spas in hotels in the future. Again, Kenya is leading the way to achieve success in these areas. The need to find the necessary demand and connection to the national power grids are observed to be the main impediments to reach a long term growing trend in geothermal energy.