Iceland taps into power of magma as source of future energy

Sunday, October 23, 2016, 6:51 PM - When it comes to harnessing renewable energy, Iceland is certainly ahead of the game. The Nordic country is attempting to drill into lava flows to tap into the power of magma.

The goal of the Iceland Deep Drilling Project? To create the hottest hole in the world. Drilling started on August 12 at the southwestern peninsula of Reykjanes between two tectonic plates in a boundary region referred to as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. If the drill can successfully bore down 5 km, it will reach water that has been heated by magma to temperatures of up to 1,000^oC.

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"People have drilled into hard rock at this depth, but never before into a fluid system like this," Albert Albertsson, assistant director of HS Orka, a geothermal company involved in the project told New Scientist.

According to Albertsson, a single hot well could have an energy capacity of 50 MW, which is enough to power 50,000 homes.

While this sounds incredibly dangerous, researchers are confident and know what to expect as this is something they are quite familiar with.

A pilot project in 2009 involved drilling to a depth of 2 km in Krafla in northeast Iceland. A perforated steel casing was installed at the bottom of a well, which allowed a flow of magma to create a superheated, pressurized steam with temperatures over 420^oC recorded. This set a world record for geothermal heat, which generated 30 MW of power. However, the energy was never utilized and the well was shut down due to corrosion problems.

Iceland has eliminated fossil fuels as a power source and runs completely off hydropower (71 per cent) and geothermal energy (29 per cent).

SOURCE: New Scientist 

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