Iceland's geothermal know-how to warm others 2/7/11 10:39 PM advertisement | your ad here home of the Subscribe to the weekend Chronicle Search SFGate Bay Area & State Nation World Politics Web Search by YAHOO! Crime Tech Obituaries Sign In | Register Businesses | Advanced Education Green Science Health Iceland's geothermal know-how to warm others Colin Woodard, Chronicle Foreign Service Sunday, August 30, 2009 PRINT E -MAIL SHARE Eirikur Hjalmarsson of Reykjavik Energy at one of the geothermal wells that fuels Iceland's Hellisheidi power plant. IMAGES View Larger Images MORE NEWS Race official: No delays in helping dying runner 02.07.11 Varnish rags ignite fire that damages 2 S.F. homes 02.07.11 Opinion 1-3 of 21 Galleries (page 1 of 3) COMMENTS Weird SINGLE PAGE FONT | SIZE: (08-30) 04:00 PST 0 Hellisheidi, Iceland -- Steam thunders out of the black volcanic earth, screaming into the chill 0 winter sky from a truck-size metal vent with the intensity of a jet engine at takeoff. A few hundred yards to the west, Iceland is being torn apart as the European and North American plates pull away from one another, drawing magma (molten rock) toward the nation's thin crust, building its mountains, and heating groundwater into steam. Academy Awards Nominations Luncheon From piercings to protests along... advertisement | your ad here In between, at the foot of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge - the longest mountain range in the world that rises from a tectonic boundary on the Atlantic seafloor - stands Iceland's newest geothermal power station. It's a chic edifice of glass and steel that attracts tens of thousands of visitors a year who come to see how Icelanders heat and power their nation largely without the use of fossil fuels. California man killed by armed bird at cockfight 02.07.11 "Most of the interest in geothermal has been sparked not by environmental considerations, but by oil prices," said Eirikur Hjalmarsson of Reykjavik Energy, the public utility that owns the plant. "We went from 95 percent of our energy coming from fossil fuels in the middle of the last century to about 20 percent today." Rell Sunn: Celebrating Hawaii's... Cameron and ARod's Super PDA Cameron Diaz is caught feeding popcorn to beau... 1. The miserable state of California 2. California man killed by armed bird at cockfight 3. Retiring S.F. police brass cash in on way out 4. Shia LaBeouf in bar brawl 5. Race official: No delays in helping dying runner 6. San Francisco is nation's vainest city Fifty mile-deep wells or boreholes have been drilled into these ancient lava fields east of the capital, Reykjavik, tapping enormous quantities of steam that are piped into the plant and forced through turbines to generate 213 megawatts of power, enough to power 175,000 typical U.S. homes. After passing through turbines, the steam is harnessed to provide heat to Reykjavik's homes and businesses, fill its steam baths and heat its swimming pools, and even keep streets and sidewalks warm and ice-free through the sub-Arctic winter. Even though Iceland's financial sector collapsed last fall, it has found creative ways to use sustainable geothermal power. And many of its innovations may be coming to Northern California and other geothermal-rich regions seeking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on oil, coal, and natural gas. In Hveragerdi, 6 miles from Reykjavik, geothermal energy is used to heat rows of http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/30/MNKG15SUJS.DTL 7. Best and worst Super Bowl ads of 2011 FROM OUR HOMEPAGE Miserable California The Golden State takes almost half of the spots on Forbes' list of America's 20 Most Miserable Cities. Comments & Replies (0) Page 1 of 3 Iceland's geothermal know-how to warm others 2/7/11 10:39 PM greenhouses. In the dead of winter, the shadows of banana trees can be seen against the frost-covered glass walls. In the far north, hot water from geothermal plants is used to farm fish at the edge of the Arctic Circle. On another ancient lava field 40 miles southeast of here, tourists relax in the hot mineral-laden water of the Blue Lagoon, the country's most famous tourist site and the healthful effluent of the Svartsengi geothermal plant. Here at Hellisheidi, after the steam has been used by a tissue manufacturer and a pharmaceutical firm (which harvests enzymes from heat-loving microbes), the leftover hot water "waste" is pumped back into the ground, to be reheated by the magma. "Icelanders approach geothermal the way the Indians approached the buffalo: They use every bit of it," said Tal Finney of Iceland America Energy, based in Los Angeles, which aims to bring Icelandic know-how to California's extensive geothermal resources. "America can truly benefit from what Icelanders have learned." Northern California is home to the largest complex of geothermal power plants on Earth: 22 plants at The Geysers, 72 miles north of San Francisco, which generate 725 megawatts. The United States remains the largest geothermal electricity producer, and California accounts for more than 85 percent of installed capacity, although few plants have been built in the past 30 years or utilize the resource as completely as Iceland does. But that may soon change. Comments & Replies (0) Warriors can't close deal Golden State makes a dent in huge deficit, but Suns hold them off. Comments & Replies (0) Warriors stop hitting panic button Flashy era for the Oscars Gallery: Streakers and other moments from the '70s and '80s. Part 1: Early years | Oscars page 1 | 2 | 3 | Next Page » PRINT E -MAIL 0 0 SHARE Subscribe to the San Francisco Chronicle and get a gift: Sunday + a $15 gift card Fri-Sun + a $15 gift card Mon-Sun + a $25 gift card Select an offer Honda Read More 2008 Accord From SFGate.com: Ky. Senate panel OKs bill on nuclear plants $19,983 More From This Dealer » It's baaaccck! Lawmakers to try again for 33... (02-02) 15:58 PST Frankfort, Ky. (AP) -- A western Kentucky lawmaker whose district is home to a uranium enrichment plant resumed his perennial push Wednesday to lift the state's ban on the construction of... 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