geothermal power plant projects in central america - Orkustofnun

3. CENTRAL AMERICAN GEOTHERMAL ENERGY DEVELOPMENT3.1 Geothermal resourcesCentral American countries (with the exception of Belize) are located within the Pacific Rim volcaniczone. Birkle and Bundschuh (2007) indicated that the geothermal systems (or hydrothermal systems)in Central America are related to the active volcanic belt and acquire their heat from magmatic bodiesat shallow to intermediate levels.Reference to Pullinger (2009) reveals that, in Central America, the high enthalpy resources areconnected to active and dormant volcanoes, caldera, and other volcano tectonic structures; mediumenthalpy resources are associated with tectonic structures that allow deep circulation of fluids or toolder volcanoes that contain remains heat. The work of Rodríguez and Herrera (2007) points out thatgeothermal resources are concentrated along the Pacific Rim, from Guatemala to Northern Costa Rica,as shown in Figure 11.FIGURE 11: Location of the geothermal fields in operation, and main geothermal areas inCentral America. Figure modified from Montalvo (2012)A study by Lippmann (2006) showed that the capacity of electricity generation in Central Americafrom geothermal resources could be in the range of 2,000 to 16,000 MW, giving a value that could bedeveloped in Central America in the next few years of around 4,430 WM (Figure 12). However, only arelatively minor amount has been developed for power production; in a region endowed with anabundance of geothermal resources, the installed capacity by year 2010 was only 506.8 MW, asdescribed in Chapter 2.3.1.1 GuatemalaThe geothermal power plant Zunil (25.2 MW) and Amatitlán (24 MW) supply approximately 3.1% ofGuatemala´s electricity. Zunil I, drilled in 1991, identified a single phase 300°C resource. Amatitlán,an exploration well drilled in 1993, confirmed the existence of a deep chloride rich geothermal systemwith a temperature of 285°C (Asturias, 2008).Asturias and Grajeda (2010) reported that evaluation of the Moyuta area in 1990 indicated that thereservoir consists of two subsystems with expected temperatures of 210 and 170°C. The results of the12