Where does the geothermal experience in Iceland come from? To answer this question, it is necessary to look at the long history of energy utilization in Iceland. In 2008, the country celebrated 100 years of geothermal district heating. This long tradition of geothermal utilization for heating and later for electricity production that began in 1969 and has been continuous until today has helped Icelandic geologists, engineers and geothermal utilities to achieve necessary know-how and expertise in the geothermal energy sector through trial and error.
The Icelandic geothermal industry has seen continuous growth for development of geothermal for electrical generation in the last 16 years. The installed electrical capacity in geothermal was only 50 MW in 1995. Since then the market has evolved with higher world energy prices, technological advances and concerns over global warming. In addition, energy intensive industries have shown interest in this economical and renewable base-load energy that Iceland is so abundant with. These factors have helped over 500 MW of electricity from geothermal energy being developed in Iceland since 1995.
This active development has spurred new R&D projects and innovative ways and techniques in geothermal plant design, drilling and operation. Engineers have developed techniques to deal with scaling, cleaning of geothermal steam, corrosion, cooling and condensing of steam and brine. Geothermal know-how has built up within the utility companies, drilling contractors and engineering consultancies. These highly-skilled plant engineers, operating technicians, geo scientists and drilling engineers have a deep understanding of geothermal reservoirs and how to harness them in a responsible and sustainable manner.Geothermal electrical generation projects confirmed or in the pipeline in Iceland today total over 800 MW, which will bring the total capacity to 1400 MW. *
*(Source: Dr. Gudni A. Johannesson, Director General of the National Energy Authority in the Annual Meeting of The Icelandic Energy and Utilities, 20.02.2009.)
