Geothermal Heating

The Geyser's is California's oldest and largest geothermal power production facility, located in the very geologically active area in the Mayacamas Mountains, a little more than an hour's drive north of San Francisco. The facility also happens to be the largest dry steam generation plant in the world. From the geysers or steam vents locatd beneath the rather large facility, visitors will find a series of very hot springs that are used to turn the generator as well as smaller ones in the nearby area that offer recreational opportunities.

The area was discovered in the 1940s and thought to be Gates of Hell, though within 5 years, people were flocking here to take advantage of an on site spa and resort. By the 1920s a rudimentary power plant was online and supplying power to the resort, though not much else. When the site was taken over by Union Oil in the late 1960s, construction and exploration began in earnest.

Today, there are 21 separate plants that make up the larger Geysers complex of power generation, most of which are owned by Calps utility company. Though the current generators are scheduled to be phased out in favour of newer and more efficient designs over the next few decades, the existing turbines located here are already capable of supplying over 60% of the energy during periods of normal demand in the whole of northern California, from San Francisco to the Oregon border.

The production at the facility began to drop after 1987 when it served nearly 2 million people with electric power. Twenty years later, the facility sill reaches a great many people north of the larger Bay Area, and is part a nearby natural area with beautiful hillside views.

The Dry Steam method of power generation uses superheated steam directly from the ground and allows the rest of it to escape as somewhat less energetic steam. This type of system has been successfully used at geothermal power plants around the world for over a century, though it is now being replaced by the binary steam system that has less steam escaping as waste and is able to utilize cooler waters.

On The Geysers site there are now over 350 wells and many miles of pipe, zigzagging across the landscape. Since 2004 the facility has been reclaiming water to re-inject into the wells in an effort to rejuvenate them back to near 1987 levels. There remain plenty of small changes and innovations that can keep this pioneering facility running well into the future.

Geothermal Heating |