In a world that has become increasingly polluted over the past 4 decades, something must be done to plug the proverbial leak. There are many ways that we can slow the force of global warming, but one thing that has been on the rise is the use of geothermal energy to create heat and electricity. A leading country in doing this is the small Nordic island country of Iceland.

Geothermal energy is the process of extracting heat from the earth and converting that heat into energy, which can be used as a source of electricity and heat. Due to recent technological advancements, more than 8.900 megawatts of large utility-scale can produce enough energy to give to 12 million US households, all without emissions and at a cheaper cost than other ways of getting electricity. But the US has more capability to produce geothermal energy than any other country (3,000 megawats in eight states), mostly coming from California. Geothermal energy is created when Earthquakes create magma movement and break up rocks below the Earth’s surface. This allows hot water to circulate and rise to the Earth’s surface and the heat from that water is used to generate energy.

Iceland is located roughly 1,073 miles north west of England in the Norwegian Sea. Since Iceland is a very volcanic country, with active volcanoes on the island, much energy can be derived from the Earth’s inner core. Today, Iceland generates 25% of its electricity from geothermal power facilities, and 87% of the country’s heat. Essentially, the way that Iceland uses the Geothermal heat is by creating steam power. But, since the high amount of volcanic activity in Iceland creates hot springs, there is no need for a power plant to create the steam, because it already exists from the hot springs. These hot springs can contain water that is naturally heated to around 150 degrees Celsius. But this high amount of geothermal energy does not come with a price. The large amount of volcanic activity on Iceland means that ground is not exactly stable. The tectonic plates can have a tendency to move, and therefore create earthquakes on the Earth’s surface.

Icelandic hot spring suitable for swimming

Since the increased research on the front of geothermal power, Iceland has been thrust into a leading role in the usage of geothermal energy. Iceland has embarked on a project called The Iceland Deep Drilling Project. This project is being worked on by Iceland’s leading power companies and with the Icelandic government to “determine if utilizing supercritical geothermal fluids would improve the economics of power productions from geothermal fields”. They plan to drill deep down into those supercritical zones in order to see if they can further increase their energy generation. I believe that Iceland is certainly on to something with geothermal energy. With the US having a strong capability to do much of the same stuff, I believe that it would be worth the effort to get the wheels moving for the sake of the environment.

Diagram of IDDP

References

http://www.nea.is/geothermal/the-iceland-deep-drilling-project/

http://www.newstatesman.com/future-proof/2014/01/icelandic-scientists-tap-molten-magma-record-geothermal-energy-production

http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/our-energy-choices/renewable-energy/how-geothermal-energy-works.html

http://waterfire.fas.is/GeothermalEnergy/GeothermalEnergy.php