Quote:
Originally Posted by supernova1965
The experimental station that is operational is I believe self sufficient in water as it is a closed system the steam created from pumping the water down into the hot rocks is recondensed back to water. |
No, it's not closed.....if it was that would make it a perpetual motion machine, which the laws of thermodynamics prohibits. There is loss through leakage within and uptake by the rocks themselves. Not only that, the water in these geothermal systems is not ideal in that it can be highly corrosive. It's full of dissolved mineral salts which causes all sorts of problems with machinery and the plumbing as well as the efficiency of the water/steam flow and such. That's why they're so expensive to build....the pipes have to be made out of metal like stainless and even then the water will eventually corrode the pipes over time, especially at joints and junctions.