Initial testing for a new kind of turbine engine has produced outstanding ‘work efficiency’ figures showing a remarkable, not to say incredible, increase over current best performance. The new machine, developed by International Automated Systems, is undergoing tests at Brigham Young University where initial data concerning high temperature high pressure applications has yielded a work efficiency figure of an astonishing 70 per cent. IAS is currently in discussion with several large regional power producers, and, significantly, with legislators, who are looking for potential solutions to the California energy crisis and future energy shortfalls in general.
Although very little in the way of technical information is available at present, the IAS turbine seems to be well suited to geothermal power generation, in which configuration, say IAS, it could produce electricity for as little as 1 cent per kWh. Reputedly there is 27 times more energy available from geothermal hot spots – hot water or hot steam reservoirs – than the entire US power demand.
