Daniel Fleischmann
Project Initiation Manager, Ormat Technologies Inc.
Daniel Fleischmann is the Project Initiation Manager for Ormat Technologies Inc. He is responsible for analyzing and tracking the domestic and global market for geothermal power and initiating power sales for all Ormat geothermal and solar projects in North America. He has been a speaker and presenter at over fifteen geothermal and renewable energy conferences and events in North America; and an author of ten publications on renewable energy. He was previously the Research Coordinator for the Geothermal Energy Association, where he published reports on policy, development, and resources for five individual states: Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah in 2006 as well as a broad assessment report released in January of 2007 entitled An Assessment of Geothermal Resource Development Needs in the Western United States.
IMPLEMENTING NEW POWER PLANT TECHNOLOGIES
Geothermal Power Production is a mature and competitive industry, which has benefited from the continuous improvement in plant design and technology transfers from the oil and gas industry. Geothermal energy, although site specific, exists in many otherwise energy poor countries which rely on imported fuels for their power generation.The combination of non-fossil fuel and power generation from indigenous geothermal resources results in social, economic and technical benefits. Power costs are competitive with diesel generation, and can often provide power at a lower real cost when compared to electricity produced from imported fuel.Long development time is the major obstacle for the deployment. A typical development cycle is presented.An overview of conventional and new power plant technology is presented as well as Ormat’s20-year experience in deploying new power plant technologies.Hurdles and incentives in the U.S., industrial countries and developing countries are presented.In conclusion, many factors critical to the acceleration of the use of geothermal energy are outlined.