Debate Session on Geothermal
Dear ladies and gentlemen.
It is a great pleasure to have the opportunity to be with you here today. Let me just make a few points.
In Iceland we are blessed with our geothermal resources. So proud that, the other day, I, in my capacity as the Minister of Tourism, invited tourist, travelling to Iceland during November, to come and have a footbath with me in a tiny geothermal out-door pool by the coast near Reykjavík. This is all part of a new campaign inspiring tourists to come to Iceland during winter time, but it´s also symbolic of how we value the heat in our tempered climate.
The most important use of our geothermal resource is for house and district heating where over 90% of the population has the privilege to use the natural hot water to heat their houses, run their public open air swimming pools and geothermal spas.
The electricity production from geothermal sources has been increasing the last years and is getting more important every year, where at the moment the share of electricity that has its origin from geothermal is around 27% of the total electricity produced. The remaining share comes from hydropower.
Though we are blessed with this access to this clean energy resource, there are still some challenges we face when it comes to it's utilization.
To name just a recent example:
ReinjectionAn important precondition for harvesting our inland geothermal sources, is that the discharge water will be reinjected into the reservoir. This is important in order to maintain the pressure in the reservoir and to protect the ground water resources.
In a recent reinjection phase that has started in a geothermal power plant near Reykjavik we have experienced aseries of small earthquakes that have been clearly sensed in nearby villages.
Even though the experts assume these activities to be of similar nature as we would expect without reinjection we are facing the challence to verify this and give the correct information to the public.
The Cooperation Agreement
Earlier today Mr. Shmatko, Russia´s minister of Energy, and I signed a Cooperation Agreement between Iceland and Russia in the field of Geothermal.
It is my hope that this Cooperation Agreement between our two countries will be the catalyst to increase the cooperation between Iceland and Russia.
It could become an arena for the scientists to form answers to some of those questions related to the utilization of the geothermal resources we still have not got response to.
New technology is vital when it comes to more energy efficient way to use the natural resources.
In this context, it is a pleasure for me to inform you that Mr. Professor Sigfusson, Director of Innovation Iceland, (who is actually with us here today) has been asked to be a leading scientist in the large energy/technology programme that won the grant competition last year and is currently being carried out in Tomsk and Novosibirsk.
I would also like to add that a few weeks ago, Russian and Icelandic scientists had a seminar in Iceland where the discussion centred on supercritical steam in deep geothermal boreholes, a very promising cooperation between our two nations
Geothermal Cluster
Cooperation is important and the Icelandic actors in the geothermal arena are aware of that.
That's why the work to establish a Geothermal Cluster has been started in Iceland. The process was instigated by encouragement and inspiration of Mr. Michael Porter, the world's foremost expert in cluster work.
The Geothermal Cluster will be a powerful vehicle to mobilize the private sector and guide the policy choices of my government.
The vision of the Icelandic Cluster is to focus on creating greater value for those involved and I think I can say with confidence that there are many interesting opportunities connected to geothermal resource yet to be explored. *
To conclude let me just emphasize that our gathering here is a good opportunity for all of you that are interested and in many ways involved in geothermal projects, to get ahead and vitalize your work, both individually, but not least in cooperation.
As the saying goes in our island shaped by ongoing volcanic activity: Iceland always heats one up, doesn't it?