Power Generation Using Nonconventional Renewable Geothermal & Alternative Clean Energy Technologies

Abstract

Advanced nonconventional renewable & alternative clean energy technologies which are used for generation of electricity have shown real promise and received renewed interest in recent years due to an increasing concern of environmental issues of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, being responsible for global warming & climate change, environmental pollution, and the limitations and conservation of natural energy resources. One of these innovative & emerging technologies is non-conventional, renewable and clean low-temperature geothermal energy (LTGE) technology. The vast low-temperature geothermal resources found widely in most continental regions have not received much attention for electricity generation. Continuous development of innovative drilling and ORC power generation technologies and other factors make this nonconventional and renewable energy source one of the best future viable, alternate and available source to meet the required future electricity demand worldwide, significantly reducing GHG emissions and mitigating global climate change. Section 2.1 of this chapter presents some novel applications of using LTGE resources and section 3.1 presents the fundamental concept of LTGE for power generation using ORC binary technology and discusses its limitations, environmental & economic considerations, and energy-conversion performance aspects. Another innovative alternative clean energy technology is thermoelectric (TE) power generation. Most of the recent research activities on applications of TE power generation have been directed towards utilisation of industrial waste heat (Riffat & Ma, 2003) where the cost of fuel input is cheap or free. In this large-scale application, TE power generators offer a potential alternative of green electricity generation powered by waste-heat energy that would contribute to solving the worldwide energy crisis, and the same time help reduce environmental global warming. The relatively low conversion efficiency of TE generators has been a major cause in restricting their use in electrical power generation. Recently, there has been a renewed research interest in TE technology due to emerging novel TE materials. Section 2.2 of this chapter presents innovative applications of using TE power generation technology and section 3.2 presents TE fundamental concept and discusses its limitations, energy-conversion performance, and material considerations for novel TE power generators. Thermophotovoltaic (TPV) power generation is another promising alternative clean energy source technology. There have been some causes for limiting the applications of TPV power generation technology. The