Normally, geothermal energy is hard to come across due to the amount of drilling is required to reach the required heat and steam to produce geothermal energy. There is, however, one country whose geographical positioning makes it perfect for extracting geothermal energy.
Iceland is a young country geologically. It lies on either side of one of the earth’s major fault lines, the Mid-Atlantic ridge. This is the boundary between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. The two plates are moving apart at a rate of about 2 cm per year. Iceland’s location is a hot spot of unusually great volcanic productivity.
During the course of the 20th century, Iceland went from what was one of Europe’s poorest countries, dependent upon peat and imported coal for its energy, to a country with a high standard of living where practically all stationary energy is derived from renewable resources. The main reason for this enormous change in the country’s energy resource is due greatly to the volcano activity.
Iceland is currently a pioneer in the use of geothermal energy for space heating and the generation of electricity. Generating electricity with geothermal energy has increased significantly in recent years and geothermal power facilities currently generate 25% of the country’s total electricity production.
In 2014, roughly 85% of primary energy use in Iceland came from indigenous renewable resources and 66% was from geothermal resources. The use of geothermal energy has many direct utilizations from bathing and recreation to snow melting to space heating. Many pools in Iceland are heated using geothermal energy. Most of these pools are public, but many school pools are also heated by these means. Only about 8% of these pools are heated using electricity or fossil fuels. Geothermal energy is also used to heat fish farms as the fish raised in these farms require the water to be in a specific temperature range for them to survive.
Some of the other direct utilizations of geothermal energy include space heating and snow melting. After World War II, Iceland carried out a lot of research and development , which has led to the use of geothermal resources for heating in the 89% of households in the country. The relative share of energy resources used to heat households has changed since 1970. The increase in geothermal energy is clear, but after 1985 it has been relatively small. The proportion of the population using geothermal energy is, however, still increasing. Overall, the share of oil for heating continues to decrease and is at present at about 1%. The share of electric heating is about 10%.
Snow melting with geothermal water has also increased during the last two decades and now most new car parking areas in regions enjoying geothermal district heating are provided with snow melting systems. Interestingly enough, the water used in space heating does not go to waste, but is actually used to deice sidewalks. The water used in space heating returns at roughly 35 degrees Celsius and is sometimes mixed with hotter water to melt the ice or snow found on streets and sidewalks.
Generating electricity with geothermal energy has increased significantly in recent years in Iceland. As a result of a rapid expansion in Iceland’s energy intensive industry, the demand for electricity has increased considerably. The use of geothermal power plants in Iceland has helped reduce the amount of fossil fuels to produce electricity by a huge magnitude. The geothermal power plants are able to harness the steam produced through the geothermal process to spin steam turbines which ultimately produces electricity.
Due to its geographical positioning, Iceland has been able to make use of its access to geothermal energy. They continue to improve on and decrease the amount of fossil fuels they use to generate heat or electricity and are on their way to becoming self sustaining energy wise.