Argentina has declared 2017 the year of renewable energy and is moving from words to deeds. Notably, one of the areas with the greatest potential for renewable and geothermal energy is particularly Nequen. Clean Energy XXI destca the Copahue Geothermal Project is one of those big projects that could make a difference in Argentina. The project involves the construction of a geothermal plant from the use of the obtained endogenous steam geothermal field “The Triplets of Copahue” drilling of wells needed to feed the plant and construction of a transmission line linking the geothermal reservoir area with the nearest transformer station that integrates the National Electric System.
Project design

Its development is planned in 2 stages of modular design:

Step 1: Modular Plant Design modified by ADI-NQN
• Capacity: 10 MW.
• Wells drilled: 2
• Transmission Line: 9 km (33 Kw)
• Annual Energy: 78.8 GWh
• CO2 emissions avoided: 34,690 tons / year
• Households served: 26,000
• Cost per kW installed: 4,607 US $ / KW
• Investment: US $ 46,072,000.
Step 2: Plant Design Factibilizado by JICA
• Capacity: 30 MW
• wells to be drilled 7
• transmission line 101 km (132 Kw)
• Annual energy: 237 GWh
• CO2 emissions avoided: 104,325 ton / year
• Households served : 78.000
• Cost per kW installed: 4,224 US $ / KW
• Investment: US $ 126,720,000
The modular design represents an advantage over the traditional construction of a geothermal plant as it allows early production of electricity and, more importantly, a quick recovery capital compared to traditional investment cycle. This will allow further studies and future works that make feasible the addition of new modules to reach the factibilizada generation capacity of 30 MW.
Since the characteristic of the geothermal resource available, saturated steam , high enthalpy at temperature> 230 ° C, the technology to use both options is based on a condensation cycle with steam turbines and cooling towers and capacity factor 90%.
Project development stage

The project includes three stages:

drilling
includes drilling directional wells telescopic design and production with a diameter of 9 5/8 final production. ” The depths are on the order of 1500 meters. In addition to the execution of the production perforations, it is envisaged performing tending to update the conceptual model surface geothermal field studies (geophysical and geochemical).
Generation plant
This phase includes the design, construction and installation of a geothermal plant, with an installed capacity according to the option chosen 30 MW to 10 MW. The technology used for the generation plant will be the type condensation cycle, and a plant factor of 90%.
Transmission line
This stage involves the construction of a power transmission line 132 Kv, 101 km between the geothermal power plant and the transforming station Chos Malal, in the case of option 1; while for the other case a line of underground power transmission 33 Kv required, with an approximate length 9 km from the geothermal power plant and transformer station Caviahue. Additionally, in both cases, the construction of the switchyard lifting voltage generating electrical transmission line to the center is contemplated.
Current project status

To develop the project, ADI-NQN is looking for investors interested in carrying out the exploitation of geothermal reservoir for a period of 25 years through a concession contract.

 

INFORMATION AND RESOURCES : INVESTMENT AGENCY NEUQEN