Haberler

El Salvador with prospect for 3rd geothermal unit

Alexander Richter 19 Ağu 2009

Results from initial geothermal exploration work at Chinameca in El Salvador's San Miguel department are positive and this could result in the project for the country's third geothermal unit.

Reported locally, “Results from initial geothermal exploration work at Chinameca in El Salvador’s San Miguel department are positive, according to Napoléon Guerrero, president of local geothermal company LaGeo.

“We have encountered the two factors to determine the existence of a tributary, which are temperature and permeability,” newspaper La Prensa Gráfica quoted Guerrero as saying.

Second phase work has begun in the area which could turn into the country’s third geothermal unit, he added. In El Salvador, LaGeo operates the country’s only geothermal plants: Ahuachapán and Berlín.

In the first half of this year, 1.22TWh of thermo power were injected into the country’s grid, followed by hydro (754GWh), geothermal (682GWh) and imports (94.7GWh), according to El Salvador’s wholesale market administrator Unidad de Transacciones.

State power company CEL injected the bulk of the country’s power in 1H09 with 754GWh, followed by LaGeo (682GWh) and Duke Energy International (367GWh).