Transcript ÍSOR- Iceland GeoSurvey

Geothermal projects in Iceland
Ólafur G. Flóvenz
General director of ISOR
Presentation at “Geothermal Energy - Benefits and Potential”
an event in Brussels on February 1st 2008 during
European Union Sustainable Energy Week
ICELAND GEOSURVEY
The internal heat of the Earth
The heat comes from from
decay of radioactive
material.
~ 30 °C/km
> 1000 °C
> 3000 °C
0.1% of the energy that is
stored in Earth’s crust
could satisfy the world
energy consumption for
10.000 years.
> 5000 °C
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ICELAND GEOSURVEY
Worldwide technical potential of
renewable energy sources (EJ per year)
EJ per year
6000
5000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1575
1000
640
50
276
0
Hydropower
Biomass
Solar
energy
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World Energy
Assessment 2000
Wind
energy
Geothermal
energy
The heat stored in the Earth´s crust
The geothermal energy resource is huge
but we have technical problems to harness it.
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ICELAND GEOSURVEY
Renewable energy – Electricity 2005
Production TWh
%
Hydro
2837
89.0
Biomass
183
5.7
Wind
106
3.3
Geothermal
57
1.8
Solar
5
0.2
Tidal
<2
<0.1
Source: WEC 2007 Survey of Energy Resources,www.isor.is
427-437. World Energy Council 2007 (www.worldenergy.org)
Key question
How can we extract and utilize the geothermal heat for
sustainable energy production with low environmental impact?
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ICELAND GEOSURVEY
Photo: Anette K. Mortensen
Some concepts of geothermal energy
Three main types of geothermal fields for electricity
production:
–
High temperature fields
–
Medium temperature fields
–
Low temperature fields
We distinguish between:
–
Conventional geothermal systems
–
Unconventional geothermal systems
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ICELAND GEOSURVEY
High temperature fields
–
200 – 350°C
–
Depth: 1 – 3 km
–
Related to volcanism
and plate boundaries
–
Suitible for electricity
production with
conventional turbines
Nesjavellir, Iceland.
300°C fluid used to produce electricity
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ICELAND GEOSURVEY
Medium temperature fields
–
120-200°C
–
1 – 5 km
–
Mostly found in deep
sedimentary basins
around the world as well
as in volcanic areas
–
High flowrates
necessary for electricity
–
Binary systems needed
for electricity production
Húsavík, Iceland.
124°C water used to produce electricity
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ICELAND GEOSURVEY
Low temperature fields
–
Below 100 °C
–
At 1 – 3 km depth
–
Mostly found in sedimentary basins and fracture zones around
the world
–
Suitible for space heating, balneology, fish farming etc.
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Photo: Sigurdur Sveinn Jónsson
Conventional geothermal system
Market
Power Plant
Borhole
COLD ROCK
Permeable fractures
Fluid recharge
HOT ROCK
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Almost all geothermal power plants in the world
today are conventional
Olkaria, Kenya
Photo: Ingavar Birgir Friðleifsson
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Unconventional geothermal fields are of
two main types:
Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS)
Supercritical Geothermal Systems (SGS)
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ICELAND GEOSURVEY
Enhanced geothermal system (EGS)
Power Plant
Market
Production well
Injection well
COLD ROCK
Artificially enhanced permeability
HOT ROCK
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Primary energy consumption in
Iceland 1940-2006
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Source:
Orkustofnun
ICELAND
GEOSURVEY
Energy sources used for space heating
1970-2005
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Source:
Orkustofnun
ICELAND
GEOSURVEY
Cost of house heating
in the Nordic countries
9,00
8,00
7,00
5,00
4,00
3,00
2,00
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Danmörk
Denmark
Svíþjóð
Sweden
Norway
Noregur
0,00
Finnland
Finland
1,00
Ísland
Iceland
Ikr/kWh
6,00
Source: Samorka, Iceland
From fossil fuel to geothermal:
The environmental benefit
Before geothermal space heating:
Reykjavik in 1933 covered with smoke from
coal heatings,
With geothermal space heating:
Reykjavik in 2008, almost same view but
without visible air pollution
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ICELAND GEOSURVEY
Geothermal fields and installed power in geothermal plants
+ 400 MW 2015
2 MW
60 MW
3 MW
+ 400 MW before 2015
120 MW
120 MW
100 MW
76 MW
+ 200 MW before 2015 ?
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ICELAND GEOSURVEY
The magic Icelandic progress
–
Favourable, but not unique geological conditions.
–
High public acceptance.
–
Political willingness:
• Good regulatory and legal framework.
• Strong initial governmental support for research,
capacity building and risk sharing funds.
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ICELAND GEOSURVEY
Favourable geological conditions
• Intersection of a hot spot and a
oceanic Ridge.
• Repeated magmatic intrusions
keeps the crust warm.
• Seismic activity opens
pathways for fluid to extract the
heat.
Hot spot
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ICELAND GEOSURVEY
The geothermal potential in Iceland
–
The generating capacity from known high temperatrue
fields is of the order of 25 TWh/y assuming heat
extraction to 3 km depth.
–
In addition there are 1,50x1021 J stored energy above
200°C between 3 and 5 km in the volcanic zone in
extensional environment. Converting only 1% of this
energy to electricity could yield additional 40 TWh/y for
100 years.
–
To-day the generating capacity in Iceland is 480MWe.
The total potential is unknown, but might be as a high
as 8000 MWe , depending on the technical progress in
the near future.
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ICELAND GEOSURVEY
Public acceptance:
The Blue Lagoon
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Photo:GOF-9. March 2001, 11:35:48
Volcanism and earthquakes are important
natural resources!
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ICELAND GEOSURVEY
Are the mid-oceanic ridges
the future energy resource?
–
About 600 km of the axis
of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
are in Icelandic waters.
–
Very high temperatures
at shallow depths below
the ocean bottom.
–
Could we develop
methods to produce
30.000 MW of electricity
from oceanic ridges in
the future?
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ICELAND GEOSURVEY
The Icelandic geothermal experience
shows that
–
Geothermal energy
can be produced in
a sustainable and
feasible way with
low environmental
impact.
Photo: Emil Thor
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ICELAND GEOSURVEY
To increase the world wide share of
geothermal electricity production we need:
–
Strong support for research, especially for unconventional
geothermal resources.
–
Support action to implement geothermal plants in the
developing countries.
–
Education and dissemination of geothermal know-how.
–
Favourable legal and regulatory framework.
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ICELAND GEOSURVEY
Thank you for your attention
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ICELAND GEOSURVEY
Photo: Gudmundur Steingrímsson