Dry Steam Power Plant

A dry steam power plant is the simplest and oldest design of geothermal power station, built where an underground reservoir produces steam directly rather than hot water, and it channels that steam, at 150 degrees Celsius or higher, straight to a turbine connected to an electricity generator; the steam then condenses back to liquid water in a cooling unit and is pumped back down into the wells to be reheated and reused. The world first geothermal power generator was tested at Larderello, Italy on July 4, 1904, successfully lighting four light bulbs, and the first commercial geothermal power station opened at the same site in 1911; Italy remained the world only industrial producer of geothermal electricity until 1958. Dry steam plants are considered the most efficient geothermal technology, but they remain rare because they require specific geological conditions; at The Geysers in California, the world largest dry steam field, thirty years of production noticeably depleted the underground steam supply, and the operators now inject supplemental water to help sustain output.