Tuesday, April 15, 2014

South Africa:

South Africa Gives EGS Consideration (Independent Online)

South Africa should give more serious thought to digging deep underground to tap the buried heat of the Earth to generate more electricity.

This is the suggestion from geology and climate change researchers who suggest significant volumes of renewable power can be generated from using the latent heat of rock to produce steam and electricity. In their paper the researchers studied the possibility of consider a 75-MW Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) plant in the Limpopo Province, sustainable over a 30-year period.

Writing in the latest issue of the SA Journal of Science, researchers Taufeeq Dhansay, Professor Maarten de Wit and Professor Tony Patt say most early measurements of heat flow in South Africa were taken in the Witwatersrand area, which contains some of the world’s oldest and thickest rock structures

Dhansay T, De Wit M, Patt A. An evaluation for harnessing lowenthalpy
geothermal energy in the Limpopo Province, South Africa. S Afr J Sci. 2014;110(3/4), Art. #2013-0282, 10 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/
sajs.2014/20130282