Webinars
22 March 2023
Geothermal power plants (GEPPs) often have excess power block capacities due to declining geothermal reservoirs. As an opportunity, the hybridization of an existing GEPP with Concentrating Solar Thermal (CST) and/or biomass has the opportunity to provide additional "green" heat to make use of this excess power block capacity.
As a challenge, the power block characteristics of GEPPs are typically different from those of commercial CST and biomass power plants, which can make efficient hybridization difficult. Background on geothermal, CST, and biomass resources and technologies is provided to enable participants to conceptually appreciate the opportunities and challenges to hybridize geothermal with CST and biomass. Numerical case studies to hybridize an existing GEPP with CST and with biomass developed within the European Union (EU) Horizon 2020 GeoSmart are presented.
A brief overview of the strongly aligned Horizon Europe CST4ALL project that aims to identify and exploit research and innovation (R&I) and operational synergies between different clean energy technologies is presented with a goal to catalyze follow-up collaborative activities.
The GeoSmart project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement 818576. The CST4ALL project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreements 101075408.
Speakers
Derek K. Baker
Prof. Dr. in Mechanical Engineering
Middle East Technical University (METU)
Derek K. Baker is a Prof. Dr. in Mechanical Engineering at Middle East Technical University (METU) and a Senior Research at the Center for Solar Energy Research and Applications (ODTU-GUNAM), both in Ankara, Turkiye. Derek Baker's main research interests are in Concentrating Solar Thermal (CST) technologies specifically, and thermal and hybrid renewable energy technologies more generally.
Derek Baker is Institutional Principal Investigator (PI) for METU's EU Horizon 2020 (H2020) GeoSmart and ODTU-GUNAM EU Horizon Europe (HE) CST4ALL's projects, where METU's main technical contributions to the GeoSmart project is to develop and assess novel methods to hybridize geothermal with CST and biomass. Derek Baker is also the coordinator for the on-going EU H2020 SolarTwins project on CST and accepted EU HE SolarHub project on CST and PV.