Video Transcript | October 2010

Producing Geothermal Energy:

How It Works
Hi. My name is Ken Williamson, and I work with Chevron to produce geothermal energy. I would like to show you what
geothermal energy is and how it is produced. On our website, chevron.com, in the Human Energy Stories section, you can find
an interactive story that explains the process. Lets check it out.
Geothermal energy is a renewable form of energy that takes hot water and steam from deep within the Earth to produce
electricity for homes and businesses. The best place to develop geothermal electric power today is where the hot magma that
feeds volcanoes has accumulated deep in the Earths crust and where the rocks above the hot magma have been fractured and
filled with hot water or steam. Large geothermal fields are found along tectonic plate boundaries where earthquakes and
volcanoes are common in places such as California, the Philippines, Indonesia and Iceland.
After we find the areas underground where hot rocks are fractured and saturated with water or steam, we drill wells to tap into
the fractures, usually 4,000 to 10,000 feet [1,220 m to 3,048 m] deep. The temperature down there is between 400Fahreinheit
and 600 Fahrenheit [204 C to 316 C]. This picture shows steam bubbles inside the well. They form as hot water moves up the
well, boiling as the pressure drops.
The type of geothermal plant shown in this demonstration, which is the most common, is called a flash plant. At a flash plant, hot
water and steam from our geothermal well are piped into a separator. Here, the steam is separated off from boiling water and
sent to a power plant. The remaining water in the separator is sent to an injection well, shown on the right of the picture, so it can
be put back into the Earth. The injected water will heat up again, produce more steam and help maintain pressure. This keeps
the production wells flowing for many years.
In the next step, we go back to the separator and follow the steam to a power plant. After the high-pressure steam is cleaned of
all contaminants, it flows through a turbine, making the blades spin and creating electricity.
Now to the people who use the energy we produce. Chevrons geothermal power plants transmit electricity to consumers
through the national power grids in the Philippines and Indonesia. In fact, millions of homes get their power from Chevrons
geothermal operations.
A special benefit of geothermal is that it can produce electricity while emitting only small quantities of carbon dioxide. So,
geothermal development plays an important role in reducing the emission of gasses that are contributing to climate change.
Chevron is the largest producer of geothermal energy in the world. That also makes Chevron the leading producer of renewable
energy among all oil and gas companies.
I hope you found this video useful. You can find this interactive story and others like it on Chevron.com in the Human Energy
Stories section. Thanks for watching.

www.chevron.com
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of Chevron Intellectual Property LLC.

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