Having already tamed its shallow geothermal resources, the chilly island nation is now trying to tap into the power of magma.
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Since early August, the Icelandic Deep Drilling Project has been boring down into ancient volcanic lava flows located in Reykjanes, Iceland. These flows overly the mid-Atlantic Ridge, the tectonic boundary separating the North American and Eurasian plates where magma bubbles close to the surface. Conveniently, this oceanic plate boundary takes a land-based detour through Iceland’s southwest.
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If the drill can penetrate to a depth of 3 miles (5 kilometers), it’ll reach “supercritical steam,” water that has been heated by magma to temperatures of up to 1,000 degrees Celsius at pressures of 200 atmospheres.
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The energy potential in this lava-heated steam is enormous. A geothermal company involved with the project estimates that a single one of these deep, hot wells could have a capacity of 50 megawatts (MW), ten times higher than your typical shallow geothermal well, and enough to power 50,000 homes.
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Iceland has already eliminated fossil fuels from its grid, which runs entirely off hydropower and geothermal energy. It’s great to see that a nation so far ahead of the rest of us in this respect isn’t just resting on its laurels, but finding bigger and badder sources of clean energy.
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