Ground Report

Iceland is a country in northern Europe, making up the island of Iceland and its distant islets in the North Atlantic Ocean between the rest of Europe and Greenland. Iceland has a population of about 316,000 according to an April 1, 2008 estimate and a total area of 103,000 km² (nationsencyclopedia.com). Its capital in addition to its largest city is Reykjavík. As of 2007, Iceland is the most developed country in the world along with its neighbor Nordic country of Norway according to the human development index. In addition, it is one of the most egalitarian, according to some calculations supported upon a mixed economy where service, finance, fishing and various industries are the main segments (www.wto.org). Furthermore, it is also the fourth most productive country per capita (indopedia.org/List of countries by GDP). Icelanders is a country rich in culture and heritage. In addition, Iceland is a member of the UN, NATO, EFTA, EEA and OECD, but not of the European Union despites its association with the EU. The country is a nominee for a non-permanent seat at the UN Security Council (Iceland. Org /security council). In Iceland over 70% of energy comes from renewable resources, according to the Icelandic government pdf files on energy. Electricity and space heating is provided by renewable. Iceland sources of energy are geothermal and Hydrogen. This explains why Iceland is one of the world’s leaders in the technological advancement of geothermal along with hydrogen energy that has attracted businesses to Iceland. An interesting fact about hydrogen according to the Icelandic government is that it is the lightest element in the world. Also 90% of the world’s material in the world has hydrogen potential. Waters is composing of hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen fusion is what keeps the starts glowing. Advantages of Hydrogen are that it is abundant due to the fact that it is the most common element in the universe. The second advantage is that it is clean because it causes no pollution when used in fuel cells and extremely small emissions in IC engines. Hydrogen is secure since the production is not restricted to certain regions or limited deposits, ensuring constant supply. The Icelandic government also stated that fuel cell efficiency cells have almost twice as the energy efficiency as conventional IC engines and that it can be generated with a great range of primary energy sources like biomass, hydro, wind, solar, geothermal, nuclear, oil, coal and natural gas. Once produce it can be used for transportation or distributed generation. The way that Iceland benefits from Hydrogen is the increase use of local renewable. The renewable energy could be used for transportation like buses or even ships. It is now possible to rent a hydrogen power car from Hertz in Reykjavik, Iceland. The Government of Iceland reports that Hydrogen can be used to power buses and some fleet cars in this energy rich country that takes 70% of its energy from renewable energy that provides energy security and a clean environment. Since Iceland saves a lot of money from not importing so much oil the extra money is pumped back into Iceland. Use of renewable energy provides Iceland a sustainable energy economy. While Hydrogen is abundant and has many benefits the other source of energy for Iceland is geothermal. According to Dr. Robert M. Stesky “Iceland formed by the coincidence of the spreading boundary of the North American and European plates and a hotspot or mantle plume. As the plates moved apart, excessive eruptions of lava constructed volcanoes and filled rift valleys. Subsequent movement rifted these later lava fields, causing long, linear valleys bounded by parallel faults. These movements continue today, accompanied by earthquakes, reactivation of old volcanoes, and creation of new ones” (Dr. Roberts, A Tour of Some Iceland Geology). Iceland is a volcanically and geologically active location which is why geothermal energy is abundant and cheap. According to a British news article geothermal energy in Iceland occurred by accident. According to Jessica Alfred In 1907, a farmer in west Iceland took steam from a hot spring that ran below his farm through a concrete pipe and hooked on to his house several meters above. Jessica goes on to say that sometime later, another farmer became the first Icelander to use hot spring water for heating, and extensive distribution of hot water to heat homes began in the capital in 1930. A government website design for kids, geothermal energy is created in the earth’s core, which is about 4,000 miles below the surface. Iceland web states that Iceland’s largest geothermal power plant is in Nesjavellir, although the Kárahnjúkar dam will be the country’s largest hydroelectric power plant upon completion. The energy is recovered from the heat of the earth’s core. In nature, geothermal heat shows up in the form of volcanoes, hot springs and geysers. The heat itself is original from radioactive decay beneath the earth’s surface. In certain locations, it is concentrated and is close enough to surface waters to be brought to the surface of the earth for different uses. Once the temperature is above 150c degrees it can then be used for energy in Iceland. California, Iceland, Italy, New Zealand and Japan are areas where such energy is widely used because they are located on very active geological locations. The geothermal heat is mostly used to heat fresh water which, when hot, can be utilized directly for central heating. According to the Icelandic government 89% of all the houses in Iceland are heated by geothermal energy, but the geothermal water can also have many other uses. Geothermal educational program states that geothermal have it is agricultural, industrial and many other uses. The steps to extract geothermal energy goes as following according to energy Rochester: Geothermal energy is taken for heating and electricity generation from natural steam, hot water, or hot dry rocks in the Earth’s crust . The water is then pumped down through an injection well and passes through joints in the hot rocks. It goes to the surface through a recovery well and may be converted to steam. A mixture of steam and geothermal brine is moved from the wells to a central separation station. After being separated from the brine, the steam is piped through moisture separators that steam heat exchangers inside the plant building. Then the steam can be piped to steam turbines for co-generation of electricity. Unutilized steam escapes through a steam exhaust. In the steam heat exchangers, the steam is cooled under pressure into condensate. The heat is then moved to cold fresh water in condensate heat exchangers. The condensate cools down in the process to 20 degrees C. Separated geothermal brine has its heat transferred to cold fresh water by geothermal brine heat exchangers. Since the mineral-rich geothermal brine has the effect of causing scaling that coats the heat exchanger pipes, steel particles are allowed to circulate in the stream, impacting against the pipes to remove any scaling as it occurs. Cold water is then pumped from wells to a storage tank .From the storage tank, it is pumped to the heat exchangers where the temperature is raised to 85 degrees C to 90 degrees C. It is then passed through desecrators where it is boiled at low vacuum pressure to remove dissolved oxygen and other gases that cause corrosion after being heated. Thus cooling the water to 82 degrees C to 85 degrees C. Renewable energy has proven to be beneficial for Iceland. The abundance of cheap energy coming from Iceland has attracted business. The first reason why businesses are being attracted to Iceland is because oil will not last forever and countries that already are developing good technology in renewable resources are very appealing. Also many companies would like to enjoy the reputation of caring for the environment. On the other hand companies focus on geothermal energy resources and hydrogen are exporting such technology elsewhere. Asgeir Margeirsson heads up a new geothermal company called Geysir Green Energy. According to NPR news companies like Geysir Green Energy are going to places like California where there is a huge market for renewable energy. California already makes more geothermal electricity than all of Iceland, and the industry in the United States is poise for expansion. Margeirsson stated that, “We do operate a district heating system in China, for example," he says. "And I like telling the story about that, because what we did is that we drilled a couple of wells, we started to pump up hot water, we diverted it through pipes into homes and we abandoned and tore down two coal-fired heating stations."(NPR, Businesses See Green in Iceland’s Volcano Power). In conclusion, it surprises me that a country so small could be way ahead of the United States considering that first the United States has a lot more people, is considerably wealthy and is the world’s superpower. We should learn from what Iceland has done. It is time that we kick the dependence on oil for natural security and a cleaner America. References: M. Corbin ."Geothermal Energy". Retrieved May 1, 2008 from http://iceland.ednet.ns.ca/schedule.htm AlternativeEnergy.com on March 20, 2008. Retrieved May 1, 2008 from http://www.alternativeenergy.com/profiles/blog/show?id=1066929%3ABlogPost%3A23439. Iceland Government Homepage (PDF file). Retrieved May 1, 2008 from http://www.government.is/ Dr. Robert M. Stesky “A Tour of Some Iceland Geology”. Retrieved May 9, 2008 from http://www.pangaeasci.com/_iceland.htm Jessica Aldred. “Iceland’s energy answer comes naturally”. Retrieved May 9, 2008 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/22/renewableenergy.alternativeenergy. Energy kids Play. From the Energy Information Administration http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energyfacts/sources/renewable/geothermal.html Iceland on the Web http://iceland.vefur.is/iceland_nature/Volcanoes_in_Iceland/hengill.htm Geothermal Resources in Iceland The Reykjavik Heating & Electricity Plan Retrieved May 9, 2008 from Energy Rochester.edu Geothermal Education office. Retrieved May 9,2008 from http://geothermal.marin.org/pwrheat.html Richard Harris. Businesses See Green in Iceland’s Volcano Power. NPR, Retrieved May 9, 2008 from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16780339 nationsencyclopedia.com www.wto.org Iceland. Org /security council