Week 1: Corn Field on the Fjord's Peninsula

I’m bouncing along Route 1, the road that encircles Iceland, in the very back row of a coach bus. Always take the back row if it is a continuous row of seats; if you are lucky (or smelly) enough, nobody will sit next to you and you can stretch out in perfect horizontal bliss. I like to believe that I got lucky, but my sinuses are congested, so it could be my odor. Whatever the cause, I am staring at the big toe of my left foot as it pops out of my sock, which is happily resting three seats away. Someone muttered, “the ‘Kanne’ would take up four seats,” to which I silently replied, “yeah, but the Ameri-Kanne isn’t getting deep vein thrombosis on this six-hour bus ride.” There were only four people on the bus - take as many seats as your want! I stretched a little more and smiled and looked up at some window decals I could not read.

This is how I chose to shuttle myself from Reykjavik (translates to "Smoke Bay" on account of the hydrothermal ventings discovered by Viking settlers) to Akureyri (translates to "Corn Field on the Fjord’s Peninsula," apparently). For about 10,000 kroner ($80) I get a window seat looking out to fjorded coastline, moraine-filled valleys, and mountains sawed in half by the unyielding rivers. Quaint farms quilt my current valley’s trough. Only minutes ago I passed an Icelandic Pony stable – the only horse breed with five gaits, one more than the meager four speeds known to most horses.

So begins my quest for geothermal energy. This is a country bursting with geothermal resources. Learning to explore for hot water in Iceland is like learning to fish with an AK-47 and a barrel of cod. You can hardly penetrate the ground without eliciting some scalding eruption.

Steaming Earth:


Here in Akureyri I have plans both established and nascent. Tomorrow I meet with Bjarni Gautason at the Icelandic Geosurvey (ISOR), a private geothermal energy consulting firm that was spun out of a state agency almost a decade ago. We will attempt to correlate surface data with subsurface heat information to develop techniques for cheaper and faster geothermal resource identification.

I also hope to work on the International Deep Drilling Project (IDDP) – arguably the most advanced geothermal project in the world. An international consortium of firms and government agencies (the DOE in rank) are attempting to drill and exploit supercritical fluids under Iceland. Last June the project was delayed because their drill penetrated a magma chamber! The IDDP attempts to develop strategies and technologies for coping with the super-heated and highly acidic fluids found under extreme conditions.
Through both these projects, I aim to garner a better understanding of how organizations endeavor to build their power plants. How do firms and governments differ in their approaches, and which approach is most effective? My concept is that consulting firms and international consortiums will give me the broadest view of the geothermal industry – the introduction chapter of my Watson Fellowship.

My third month here will take me to Husavik, where I will work on a more specific and focused level with a single geothermal power plant. The plant in Husavik operates a Kalina Cycle Binary Phase turbine, which is the most advanced turbine currently employed in geothermal. Unfortunately the plant was also eviscerated by acidic waters during its initial operation, and is currently being refurbished. A perfect opportunity to see how thing fits together! Plans can change, but that is the plan for now.

One theme I've noticed here is the private-public clash. The majority of Iceland’s geothermal power plants and utilities are state-run, but Magma Energy from Canada is a new private player in the Icelandic electricity market. I met with several diplomats in the American Embassy last week, including the economic attaché, and began seeing the differences between private and public ownership of resources. Icelanders are fiercely defensive of their resources, their environment, and their autonomy. That defensiveness is currently playing out as backlash against Magma Energy, which bought the assets of a bankrupt Icelandic utility (financially decimated in the 2008 banking crisis here).

Magma’s deal involves a 60-year lease on a geothermal resource and an option for first-right-of-refusal on a second lease of equal length. “They have no incentive to manage the resource responsibly,” said my host in Akureyri. Locals worry that they will exploit the earth until it runs cold, and then skip back to Canada, giggling all the way to the bank. Also, a rise in electricity prices seems inevitable when private industry replaces a subsidized agency (electricity is virtually free here).

That's all for now. I am happily unpacked in my new home. I now reside under the roof of Sibbi and Disa. Sibbi (male) is an airline pilot and Disa (female) is a geologist at the Icelandic Road Works. They offered me a place to stay after a friend from Middlebury connected me (thanks Jared!) I pay rent by cooking dinners...