Analysis of a Water-Cooled Condenser in Series with an Air-Cooled Condenser for a Proposed 1-MW Geothermal Power Plant

摘要

The original proposal for a new 1-MWe geothermal power plant at Empire, Nevada was to have an air-cooled condenser with some type of evaporative cooling enhancement in the summertime. Such enhancement is of significant value because the net electric power output of air-cooled plants can drop by 50% or more on hot summer afternoons, and this is a time when electricity is highly valued. NREL used the proposed Empire design as the initial basis for a spreadsheet analysis of various ways to evaporatively cool the air passing through air-cooled condensers. In this latest analysis, we have expanded the previous work by investigating the concept of using a conventional water-cooled condenser in series with, and downstream of, the air-cooled condensers. The results of this analysis have been included as an additional option in the spreadsheet.