As of 2015 worldwide geothermal power capacity amounts to 12 8 gigawatts gw of which 28 percent or 3.
Geothermal energy dry steam.
Geothermal power is power generated by geothermal energy technologies in use include dry steam power stations flash steam power stations and binary cycle power stations.
At peak production these dry steam geothermal power plants are the world s largest single source of geothermal power producing up to 2 000 megawatts of electricity an hour.
Geothermal electricity generation is currently used in 26 countries while geothermal heating is in use in 70 countries.
The hot water or steam powers a turbine that generates electricity.
Steam technology is still effective today at currently in use at the geysers in northern california the world s largest single source of geothermal power.
Dry steam plants are the most common types of geothermal power plants accounting for about half of the installed geothermal plants.
About 6 percent of the energy used in northern california is produced at 28 dry steam reservoir plants found at the geysers dry steam fields in northern california.
Dry steam power plants systems were the first type of geothermal power generation plants built they were first used at lardarello in italy in 1904.
In such dry steam operations the heated water vapour is funneled directly into a turbine that drives an electrical generator.
Other power plants built around the flash steam and binary cycle designs use a mixture of steam and heated water wet steam extracted from the ground to.