Category Archives: Iceland

Geothermal, Iceland, Renewable Energy Sources, Travel

Power Plant Earth

August 8, 2011 Richard Ha 1 Comment

We toured the Reykjanes district of Iceland on Thursday, where the Blue Lagoon is located, and saw how they are using geothermal energy for multiple purposes.

We saw that some of it goes to a nearby town to heat homes. What they do is heat up fresh water and transmit it through a pipe that is covered with fiberglass insulation, and which runs inside a larger pipe. Now I understand how they can move hot water 15 miles and only lose 2 degrees C. That is also why there is no smell of sulfur coming through the hot water pipes.

Other uses:

Some of the heat is used to make electricity.
Some is used in a fish farm.
And some is used for high-end pharmaceutical plants, which grow in an enclosed greenhouse that is temperature-controlled using warm water, and LED-lit in the proper growth spectrum to maximize production.

One of the most important uses is Carbon Recycling International’s project: Capturing CO2 from the power plant and, with hydrogen from hydrolysis, making methanol as a synthetic liquid fuel for automobile transportation. This seems to be a more direct process than growing plants, microwaving it with petroleum electricity, etc.

It’s easy to imagine Iceland exporting tomatoes to Europe. It’s all about energy!

Would we do all that in Hawai‘i? Maybe not, because we have free sun energy.

But we do know that it is about analyzing energy in and energy out. Common sense.

This building at right has the 150KW of geothermal generation, as well as Power Plant Earth, a scientific exhibit area.

It’s very clean, modern and site-appropriate. These are some of the combusion turbines and hardware located indoors. It’s so clean one could eat off the floors.

The red is a 50 MW turbine. There’s an overhead crane to pick it up and move it around, and large roll-up doors to move it in and out. There were two of the 50 MW turbines in place and ready to operate, and one more to be installed. A 150 KW geothermal plant is not really very big.

The education center Power Plant Earth is at the entrance to the geothermal building. It’s a popular place for students to tour, and reminds me of the ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center in Hilo.

From its website:

From the “big bang“ theory of how the universe evolved from the size of a grapefruit to the harnessing of geothermal power in the Reykjanes peninsula, the exhibition shows how man utilizes different energy sources and how we benefit from it in our everyday lives. The exhibition´s most impressive showpiece is a geothermal turbine generating 50 MW of “green” electrical power, enough to keep Reykjavík City running on a good day.

They have an electric car on display.

It was very interesting.

Geothermal, Iceland

Iceland Rocks

August 5, 2011 Richard Ha 4 Comments

In the 1970s, the Icelandic people made a decision to use geothermal in a big way. The decision was made around the time of the “oil crisis.”

Now, 50 years later, you can see the results. More than 90 percent of their houses are heated by geothermal. The people are warm in their homes, and they don’t have to cut firewood.

Hawaii monitors for Hydrogen Sulfide much more than Iceland does. We were about 100 yards away when I took that video. You wouldn’t want to be right in the stuff, but no one seemed very concerned.

I have not seen one overhead utility line. Except for the heavy transmission lines, they are all buried underground.

Hawai‘i could be like this, too.

I’m standing on a black sand beach that stretches as far as you can see in both directions.

These would be perfect imu rocks! Very porous.

This next picture could have been taken somewhere on the Big Island.

The rocks in Iceland look like our rocks. It all comes from the same place.

The Icelandic folks have their electricity supply situation completely under control. They focused on affordable and renewable.

This is a small, camouflaged geothermal well that is used only for heating. It brings up heat from around 2,000 feet down and is piped to homes in the area. These are spread around the city and one hardly notices them.

Hydrogen is made on site using cheap electricity and water. This is still experimental.

And they take every opportunity to make multiple revenue streams. Think “exporting tomatoes using artificial light and heat from cheap geothermal.” And raising tilapia. We can learn a lot from these folks.

Roald Marth (left) and I met with Ambassador Luis E. Arrega (middle).

When Iceland transitioned to geothermal, they kept some of their old, oil-fired generating units in place. We drove by one yesterday and were told that in 50 years, they have never had to fire it back up.

(To be continued)

Catch up on the Icelandic Saga:

Part 1, Enroute to Iceland, With a Stop in New York

Part 2, Still in Iceland, Still in Shorts

Biofuel, Geothermal, Iceland, Travel, Water

Still in Iceland, Still in Shorts

August 3, 2011 Richard Ha 5 Comments

We landed in Iceland, where the temperature is mild – it’s in the mid 50s. My shorts and a jacket are working very well, so far. I’m going to stay in shorts as long as it makes sense.

We took a cab into Reykjavik. My first observations were that there are hardly any trees, and that the lava base is very familiar to those of us who live on the east side of the Big Island.

My most significant observation was that there are no overhead electric lines. Everything is underground.

We passed an aluminum manufacturing company on our way in.

I expected it to be belching black smoke, but there wasn’t even a wisp of steam. It looked very benign. We have to visit those folks.

We checked into the hotel. Here’s the view from the hotel.

Then we got a car and went down to the Blue Lagoon. We went in the water and stayed in for maybe two hours; I’m not sure, because I lost track of time. It felt good to relax and get the kinks out after that long trip.

It was sea water with a very slight smell of sulfur, and you could open your eyes under water. People had silica mud spread all over their faces for its therapeutic value. I imagine the silica had the consistency of the stuff women put on their faces at a spa. It was very fine and actually felt kind of good. But I bet it would raise all kinds of problem in the geothermal pipes when it hardens and coats the surfaces.

That’s a geothermal well in the background.

There is a live webcam at the Blue Lagoon!

After that, we explored downtown Reykjavik.

We walked up and down the old city, which has a European feel.

It’s very nice and clean, and things were hopping on a Sunday night. We had to wait more than an hour on our third attempt to get a seafood dinner.

David Stefansson (the project manager at Reykjavik Geothermal) and his wife Olga Fedorova (an international trade lawyer and Russian translator) took us for coffee. They are very nice, friendly and fascinating people and we had a wide-ranging conversation. They told us a lot about the history of Iceland and its people in the context of moving from coal to geothermal many years ago. And in that conversation, we learned that the island’s trees had been cut down many years ago for fuel.

Of course, this all makes a lot of sense. It kind of makes me think of what can happen with biomass.

I want to learn more about the leaders who forced the change that has made the Icelandic people one of the most prosperous people in the world (notwithstanding the disaster that the banking industry recently placed upon the people. They apparently confused capital with energy.)

People here reserve Sundays for family time. It’s kind of like the old plantation days in Hawai‘i. Monday was a national holiday and so we went exploring.

One of many waterfalls in Iceland.

And another one. Iceland has incredible amounts of water from the glaciers.

I happened to be looking through the lens and saw this starting, so I recorded it. This kind of thing happens at random here:

Here’s one of the few products grown in Iceland.

Most are brought in from Europe or the Middle East.

Stay tuned. Much more to come!

Read Part 1 of my Iceland trip here.

Geothermal, Iceland, New York City, Travel

Enroute to Iceland, With a Stop in New York

August 1, 2011 Richard Ha 1 Comment

Roald Marth (CEO of Ku‘oko‘a) and I just flew from Honolulu…

…to Los Angeles, and then got a connection to JFK, where we laid over for twelve hours. This gave us the opportunity to meet up with TJ Glauthier in New York City. TJ is on the Ku‘oko‘a Board of Directors, and at one time he was second in command at the U.S. Department of Energy.

He’s great, and it’s good that the timing worked to see him there.

At JFK:

We’re traveling light, for maximum flexibility. Instead of catching a limo into the city, we decided to explore and so we went by train. We took the Long Island Railway to Jamaica, Queens, and then to Penn Station in Manhattan.

This is when we were leaving Penn Station.

We walked down and checked in at the Hilton, where we showered and then did a circle tour of Manhattan Island by boat. We passed the exact spot that Captain Sullenberger landed US Airways flight 1549 on the Hudson River.

Then we caught a cab to meet TJ at the Algonquin Hotel. This next picture, left to right, is me, Ro and TJ.

photo Wikipedia

He told us about the rich history of the writers who used to meet there regularly in the heyday of print media. There is a mural on the wall of the famous people who hung out there. We even saw the Algonquin cat, who was stretching and lounging right next to TJ’s chair.

More about the cat Matilda.

Then it was back to the hotel, and then we caught a cab back to JFK and on to a Delta flight to Iceland.

It was nearly 17 hours in the air. Piece of cake!

Ro and I thought: We’ve got financing team people on the West Coast, we have a team on the East Coast and a team in Hawai‘i. We’re thinking about Europe as well as Asia. And we’re getting on a plane to Iceland.

It’s good to have clear goals.

(to be continued)

Geothermal, Iceland, Travel

Headling to Iceland

July 29, 2011 Richard Ha

Ro Marth and I are leaving for Iceland today, where we will be guests of Reyjkavik Geothermal.

I’m curious to see in how many ways they have been able to leverage geothermal energy. It is true that the economic downturn of 2008 hit Iceland especially hard, but that was due to financial matters, not energy ones.

August is a good time to visit – there are long days with mild temperatures of 55 F or so.

I plan to land there in shorts and then adapt from there as needed. Read more about my wearing shorts all the time.

I will be posting from Iceland, so stay tuned!

From Wikipedia:

Reykjavík (Icelandic pronunciation: [ˈreiːcaviːk] ( listen)) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. Its latitude at 64°08′ N makes it the world’s northernmost capital of a sovereign state. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore ofFaxaflói Bay. With a population of around 120,000 (and over 200,000 in theGreater Reykjavík Area) it is the heart of Iceland’s economic and governmentalactivity.

Reykjavík is believed to be the location of the first permanent settlement in Iceland, which Ingólfur Arnarson is said to have established around 870. Until the 18th century, there was no urban development in the city location. The city was founded in 1786 as an official trading town and grew steadily over the next decades, as it transformed into a regional and later national centre of commerce,population and governmental activities.

Geothermal, Iceland, Renewable Energy Sources, Travel

Heading to Iceland

July 15, 2011 Richard Ha

This is Part Two of a series; see Part One here.

Along with Ro Marth, CEO of Kuokoa, I have been invited to go to Iceland.

We want to find out how Iceland went from being a developing country in the 1970s to one of the most productive countries in the world today. With fishing, geothermal and hydro, they have food and fuel in abundance.

From Wikipedia:

While Iceland is a highly developed country, until the 20th century it was among the poorest countries in Western Europe….

In 2007, Iceland was the seventh most productive country in the world per capita (US$54,858), and the fifth most productive by GDP at purchasing power parity ($40,112)….

Renewable sources—geothermal and hydropower—provide effectively all of Iceland’s electricity[83] and around 80% of the nation’s total energy,[83] with most of the remainder from imported oil used in transportation and in the fishing fleet.[84][85] Iceland expects to be energy-independent by 2050. Iceland’s largest geothermal power plants are Hellisheiði and Nesjavellir,[86][87] while Kárahnjúkavirkjun is the country’s largest hydroelectric power station.[88]

If it’s true that an increasing energy supply due to oil is mostly responsible for the work that goes into manufacturing things – in other words, the world economy – then declining oil supplies will result in less manufacturing of stuff.

For the last 20 to 30 years, the world has been using twice as much oil as it’s been finding, and this trend will likely continue. Since the world’s oil supply is declining, rather than increasing, we cannot expect to rely on government grants, because governments rely on growth to get their revenues. This raises the question of how Hawaii State and County governments will balance their budgets.

We will have to tax the people who cannot bear the taxes when the economy is not growing. Or we need to grow the economy. Growing the economy is clearly the best alternative. But how?

I’m very interested in seeing what they are doing in Iceland.

Geothermal, Iceland

Iceland to Scotland?

March 16, 2011 Richard Ha

Iceland sets sights on clean power line

Omar Valdimarsson

March 7, 2011

REYKJAVIK: Europeans left stranded at airports last year as an Icelandic volcano spewed ash across the continent may soon benefit from the power that seethes beneath the remote North Atlantic island.

Iceland is doing a feasibility study into building a 1170 kilometre power cable to Scotland to transport up to 18 terawatt-hours of geothermal and hydro power a year – enough to fuel 5 million European homes.

…In about 20 years, Iceland’s energy revenue per capita may rival that in Norway, where oil income has made its $US540 billion sovereign wealth fund the world’s second-biggest. Read the rest

With guts and determination, we can do the same for Hawai‘i.

Ku‘oko‘a is planning to finance a cable that will carry geothermal electricity from the Big Island at no cost to the taxpayers. Iceland to Scotland is a distance of 725 miles, whereas it’s only 200 miles or so from the Big Island to O‘ahu.

From the Ku’oko’a website:

We are embarking on a great journey, much like the ancient people who sailed to Hawai‘i hundreds of years ago. Like them, we are searching for a better tomorrow for our children, grandchildren and generations to come. We will find the place where the Aloha Spirit can thrive because we go with open hearts and minds.