Beneath the road on a snow-dusted mountain in the Hellisheiði region of southwest Iceland, a river of boiling water flows through porous, volcanic rock. Above, thick steel pipes connect to geodesic domes, each of which houses a geothermal well.
Steinþór Níelsson, a senior geologist with ISOR (Iceland Geosurvey), parks his car near one of the rounded huts. He and his team analyze rock samples taken from boreholes to figure out the best way to drill, and then track how the supply of hot water is affected by tapping its steam, which is used to create electricity for this area, as well as the capital of Reykjavik.
The repercussions are epic: volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and a massive geothermal resource that, over the past century, has transformed Iceland from impoverished nation to the 15th richest country in the world. While the rest of Europe worries about turning down the heat or turning back to coal, Icelanders enjoy risibly low energy bills and an enviable quality of life, thanks to an abundance of water, most of which is scalding hot.
Today, every home in Iceland is heated with renewable energy: 90% from district heating systems that tap hot water directly underground and 10% from electricity generated either using steam from that water or hydropower. One-hundred percent of the country''s electricity is also renewable.Getting there was neither easy nor cheap. Voters needed to be persuaded to abandon coal, funds raised for new infrastructure, technologies created and then embraced. A big part of Iceland''s success comes down to leverage, Níelsson reflects, as we crunch our way through mounds of volcanic scree between the wells.
It''s taken almost a century, but the country has managed to maximize the social benefits of renewable energy, as well as the economic and environmental ones. Once thick with smog, the air over Reykjavik is now crystal clear. Homes are toasty, heated by naturally boiling water that''s also used to warm the multitude of outdoor swimming pools Icelanders consider an essential resource during the cold, dark winters.
"In England, you go to the pub after work," Níelsson says. "Here, you sit in a hot tub, 38 or 40 degrees, and discuss the news and politics and football. This is where a lot of community is taking place."
There are lessons here for other countries about the benefits that can be leveraged from bold investments in renewable energy. And even countries not sitting on active volcanoes may be able to utilize lower-temperature geothermal energy, says Gabriel Melek, chief of staff at Fervo Energy, a geothermal technology company based in Houston, Texas. The key is how deep you need to drill, and whether the rock is permeable. "You don''t need to be in the goldilocks situation to have geothermal deployed at scale."
A short drive from the mountain, the overlapping benefits that can be leveraged from abundant geothermal energy are on full display at the Hellisheiði Power Station. Surrounded by hills, its glassy, triangular visitor''s center rises, volcano-like, from a hardened lake of moss-covered lava; bumpy-black basalt softened by luminous, velvety green. The area doubles as a recreational site; hiking trails weave through the geothermal field and Icelandic horses carry riders on valley treks beside the network of zig-zagging green-painted pipes carrying hot water to Reykjavik.
The plant itself is a tourist attraction, complete with a gift shop. It''s also the cornerstone of a high-tech incubator, powering a cluster of businesses on site that, in turn, are doing their own work to decarbonize the planet. The world''s first direct carbon capture facility, called Orca, is here, built by Swiss startup Climeworks AG. Its fat cigar-shaped filters quiver in the wind like something out of Dr. Seuss as they suck in what looks like crystal clear sub-arctic air. Because of the way invisible greenhouse gases swiftly disperse, it''s as likely to contain the C02 from a fleet of New York taxis or a Mumbai factory.
The problem of what to do with all that hoovered-up carbon is solved by another expanding business onsite, Carbfix. It takes most of Orca''s captured carbon and injects it deep into Iceland''s porous underground rock, using the same pipes and injection wells used by the power plant to return spent brine into the ground after it''s used to generate electricity.
There''s an algae farm here as well, Vaxa Technologies, that borrows the power plant''s water, and repurposes some of its carbon emissions, to produce sustainable human and fish food. And, just a short drive from Hellisheiði, the same geothermal energy is used to heat a cluster of eight greenhouses in the small town of Reykir. Renewable power has proven key to bolstering Iceland''s food security: Despite cold winters with as little as five hours of daylight, the country manages to grow all of the cucumbers and 60% of tomatoes used domestically.
"This is the only time in the history of Iceland that foreign investment is knocking at our door. We have usually been knocking at their door," says Guðlaugur Þór Þórðarson, Minister of the Environment, Energy and Climate. "Most of them are looking for the same thing: green energy. And it''s obvious that we cannot fulfill everyone''s needs. We need to pick and choose."
Data centers have been particularly interested in staunching their vast energy needs cheaply (not to mention in a climate where servers can be cooled by simply opening the windows). The country has accepted some, but not all, of the requests but that''s still been enough to cause some friction.
Clean-tech startup Alor, which is working on an aluminum-ion battery, is hoping to begin production in 2024. It had planned to manufacture in Iceland but is having second thoughts because of fear it won''t be able to secure an energy contract.
"I know of start-up companies that cannot move forward because they are not receiving answers if they can buy the energy or not," says Chief Executive Officer Linda Fanney Valgeirsdóttir. "And that''s a situation that I don''t want to be in with our company."
The good news is, unlike in the 1930s, there is broad political consensus on the need to build more renewable power capacity. "There''s general support that we need to move forward because it''s a climate issue, it''s an energy security issue and it''s a business issue," says Halla Hrund Logadóttir, director-general of Iceland''s National Energy Authority.
But securing buy-in from the public has proved trickier in recent years. People have become increasingly protective of the natural beauty that surrounds them, including the unmarred Game of Thrones landscape that attracts so many tourists. Officials say it''s harder to win local support for new hydro and geothermal plants, and resistance to early proposals for wind farms has been strong.
"The question is how to strike a balance between land conservation and utilization," Logadóttir says. It''s complicated by the fact that shrinking Iceland''s remaining fossil fuel footprint will require significant amounts of renewable energy, be it to charge electric car batteries or to create e-fuels for the shipping industry.
Inside the Ministry of the Environment, Energy and Climate, in Reykjavik, Þórðarson keeps an original poster from the 1938 municipal election on his office wall. "Vote Geothermal" it urged Icelanders, as part of a PR campaign that promised hot water in kitchens, fresh produce and the end of smog.
Having achieved all that, today''s politicians will need to be similarly persuasive in convincing voters that the benefits of adding still more renewable energy are worth some personal sacrifices. "That is probably a bigger challenge than it was a hundred years ago, when the ones who came before us started," Þórðarson says.Then again, naysayers in that period ridiculed the technology and fear-mongered about the cost — and time has given those early evangelists of renewable energy the last laugh.
What does Iceland’s energy mix look like? Let’s find out! In our worldwide energy mix series, we look at how different countries use a number of energy sources in their energy mix to provide heating, electricity and transport.
This energy mix can be judged on the country’s energy trilemma score.
Iceland is a bit of a success story when it comes to its energy mix. As little as 40 years ago, the island was adeveloping country, dependent on fossil fuels to meet its electricity, heating and transport needs.
Today, Iceland can boast that it is the only country that generates 100% of its electricity and 95% of its heating from renewable energy sources.
Luckily, it sits in a perfect position to benefit from some of Earth’s natural resources; geothermal and hydro energy. Let’s find out more!
Hydro and geothermal energy make up all the country’s electricity needs, while geothermal energy is used straight from the ground to heat 95% of homes and water on the island.
There may be no need to worry about security of energy sources for Iceland, as according to geologists, there is a lot more potential for the island’s geothermal and hydro energy for years to come. Currently, the country has only used around 20-25% of their available hydropower, and only 20% of their available geothermal energy.
Transport, on the other hand, is still all down to oil, and Iceland’s oil reserves are notvery big; they rely heavily on imports from other countries. Iceland is looking at other sources of energy. Forexamplebiofuel, electric cars and hydrogen cells to power cars and buses
Unfortunately, even though Iceland has so much natural resource,it’scurrently too difficult to sell on the extraenergy that they don’t use to other countries.Plansto buildan extremely long cable(interconnector) to the UK keep being delayed so Iceland is looking at other options. There are proposals to use the excess energy to produce hydrogen from water in a process called electrolysis, this could be used to power transport in Iceland or exported if production is high enough.
The production of Methanol as a by product from geothermal plants has also begun recently. This process captures CO2 thatwould have been released and turns it into a fuel that can be used in cars where it emits 90% less CO2 compared to petrol or diesel.
Iceland isalsofocusing on attracting heavy industries that use a lot of power such as aluminium production and data centres. Icelandis ideally situated for this as they can be powered by renewable energy and there is no need to build and run expensive cooling systems which saves companies money and reduces their carbon footprint.
Iceland sits on the mid-Atlantic ridge, a sort of crack in the earth, where two sections of earth deep, deep underwater called tectonic plates, slightly overlap and create friction. Occasionally causing volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.
While sometimes being dangerous, Iceland’s placement actually benefits from natural and renewable geothermal energy, that can be accessed both deep underground, as well as much nearer the surface.
Both the hydro power and geothermal energy Iceland has to use are found all over the island, so there are no real issues with accessing either. These sources provide a clean, highly accessible and affordable source of energy for the whole population.
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