A research study (6 credits) submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering, School of Environment, Resources and Development

Research Studies Project Report (M. Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1984

The increasing energy demands have forced Taiwan to import more oil. At present, only about 15% of energy comes from indigenous resources. to meet parts of the energy, the available resource-geothermal energy has been developed since 1966. In the process of development of the geothermal energy, environmental problems may appear. It is the obstacle to the project. The possible environmental pollution problems encountered in geothermal fields could be summarized as: Airborne Poisons, Waterborne Poisons, Scenery Spoliation, Ecology, Noise, Heat Pollution, Subsidence, Seismicity and Land Erosion. Adequate environment information is available for analyzing the environmental impacts from the earliest stage. This requires that the potential problems characteristic of geothermal development are considered having regard to local conditions. Suitable economical methods can then be used to ameliorate the problems. It should be thus necessary to achieve the two major goals of a geothermal environmental programme: to ensure that the project does not cause unacceptable environmental damage of disruption, and to identify unrelated adverse effects of existing situations which might otherwise be attributed to the project.