Iceland: Land of Fire and Ice, Part 4 (Hverir Geothermal Basin)

Hverir Geothermal Area, #14, Iceland, 2023

[On the volcano.] “And many a fire there burns beneath the ground.”

Confusing Data?

If you consult Saint Wiki on the topic of geothermal power in Iceland, you’ll see a couple of statistics that seem to be contradictory:

“…70.38% of total energy used in the country comes from geothermal sources as of 2020…”
“…in 2020, Iceland’s geothermal facilities had in total an installed capacity of 799 MW_e, making up 25.9% of all power capacity in Iceland…”

So, what’s the deal here? Does geothermal provide 70% or 25% of Iceland’s energy needs?

To clarify, you have to distinguish between using geothermal simply to generate electricity (an indirect application), and using geothermal for all energy needs, which includes heating homes with hot water (a direct application). Understood that way, the stats make sense. Yes, just over a quarter of the electricity in Iceland is generated via geothermal sources, with the rest coming from hydro, wind, and solar. Geothermal in direct application, then, refers to all that hot water piped in to heat homes, offices, shopping malls, buildings, pools, saunas–and even sidewalks and drive ways, to keep the snow and ice from accumulating.

Overall, 100% of the energy in Iceland’s electricity grid comes from renewable sources. The big area in which fossil fuels are still used is in car, truck, and boat/ship transport, and even that percentage is shrinking as more electric vehicles come on line.

In short, this little country is quite the example of what a small population of ingenious folks can do when their land is endowed with gobs of non-traditional energy resources–hot water, steam, waterfalls, wind, waves, and many hours of summer sun (if not cloudy!).

Images – Hverir Geothermal Area

Yellowstone National Park, in the United States, is probably the best place to sample a truly huge variety of geothermal activity in a relatively small area. This particular geothermal field, for example, would just be one more small pullout on the paved tourist loop in Jellystone. But, here in Iceland, you sure can’t beat the backdrop of immense volcano cones, snowfields, glaciers, and ominous clouds… and the knowledge that hot baths await you in the next small town.