The Nuova Latera plant is a hybrid plant that combines different production cycles (see the technical project report):

• a geothermal group of the “Flash” type
• a biomass boiler
• an ORC binary cycle
• a turbo-expander
• for a total electrical power of 14 MWel.

The plant should occupy the same area as the old plant and use the same production wells. The town of Latera is located just two kilometres from the plant, in one of the main wind directions.

General planimetry of the area

In the geothermal tank, at a depth of about 2,000m, there is water under pressure (approx. 200 barA) at a temperature around 210°C with an average content of 4% of non-condensable gas (of which more than 90% is CO2). The total extraction of 500 t/h of fluid is expected from the two production wells. The steam coming out of 2 “flashes” is heated by the biomass plant (output of 6 thermal MW, fed by about 50 t/day of wood chips) and sent to the turbine that generates electricity. The ORC binary group recovers the heat contained in the condensate exiting the flashes, while the turbo expander recovers the heat of the non-condensable gases before they are sent to the AMIS (mercury and hydrogen sulphide filter system).

Schematic of a flash system

The total cost is 70 million Euros, of which 20 are for drilling work, and 19 for the power plant. The project has the advantage of being able to reuse part of the infrastructure built for the old plant, and that the exploration of the geothermal field is already completed.