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Diagram of an RTG used on the Cassini probe. A radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG, RITEG), sometimes referred to as a radioisotope power system (RPS), is a type of nuclear battery that uses an array of thermocouples to convert the heat released by the decay of a suitable radioactive material into electricity by the Seebeck effect.
Thermoelectric generators are primarily used as remote and off-grid power generators for unmanned sites. They are the most reliable power generator in such situations as they do not have moving parts (thus virtually maintenance-free), work day and night, perform under all weather conditions and can work without battery backup.
Geothermal power is highly scalable: a small power station can supply a rural village, though initial capital costs can be high. [54] The most developed geothermal field is the Geysers in California. In 2008, this field supported 15 stations, all owned by Calpine, with a total generating capacity of 725 MW. [55]
An enhanced geothermal system (EGS) generates geothermal electricity without natural convective hydrothermal resources. Traditionally, geothermal power systems operated only where naturally occurring heat, water, and rock permeability are sufficient to allow energy extraction. [ 1 ]
The Sonoma Calpine 3 power plant is one of 22 power plants at The Geysers in the United States. This is a list of operational geothermal power stations with a current installed capacity of at least 10 MW. The Geysers in California, United States is the largest geothermal power station in the world with a nameplate capacity of 1,590 MW and an annual generation of 6,516 GWh in 2018. Geothermal ...
The primary cycle extracts the geothermal energy from the reservoir, and secondary cycle converts the heat into work to drive the generator and generate electricity. [ 1 ] Binary cycles permit electricity generation even from low temperature geothermal resources (<180°C) that would otherwise produce insufficient quantities of steam to make ...
Geothermal heating is the use of geothermal energy to heat buildings and water for human use. Humans have done this since the Paleolithic era. Approximately seventy countries made direct use of a total of 270 PJ of geothermal heating in 2004.
Heat pipes extend the temperature range down to 5 °C (41 °F) as they extract and "amplify" the heat. Geothermal heat exceeding 150 °C (302 °F) is typically used for geothermal power generation. [6] In 2004 more than half of direct geothermal heat was used for space heating, and a third was used for spas. [1]