GE to supply ORegen technology for Italian geothermal power plant

Italian renewable energy company Graziella Green Power (GGP) has selected GE Oil & Gas to provide technologies for a geothermal power station in the Tuscan geothermal district.

Under the contract, GE will supply ORegen system combined with a reciprocating compressor for reinjecting the gases. It will also supply digital solutions built on GE’s Predix technology.

The ORegen technology is designed to generate electricity using steam from below the ground without any dispersal or leakage into the environment.

GE said that the flow of steam, after use, can be reinjected underground in its entirety, with zero atmospheric impact.

The technology was earlier used for waste heat recovery in hydrocarbon-based plants.

GE Oil & Gas Turbomachinery Solutions business European manager Paolo Ruggeri said: “This exciting partnership with Graziella Green Power allows us to apply a technology initially developed for oil and gas in a completely new way in the geothermal sector, which has great potential for the future.”

Upon entering service in 2018, the geothermal plant will have an annual clean energy production capacity of 40,000MWh, required to power 14,000 families.

The Graziella Green Power’s geothermal plant will be executed as experiential project as part of the Italian Ministry of Economic Development’s initiative to invest in geothermal sector with complete reinjection.