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It's named after a Nordic god and drills deep into the heart of a volcano: "Thor" is a rig that symbolises Iceland's leading-edge efforts to produce powerful clean energy.
If successful, the experimental project could produce up to 10 times more energy than an existing conventional gas or oil well, by generating electricity from the heat stored inside the earth: in this case, volcanic areas.
Launched in August last year, the drilling was completed on January 25, reaching a record-breaking depth of 4,659 metres (nearly 3 miles).
At this depth, engineers hope to access hot liquids under extreme pressure and at temperatures of 427 degrees C (800 F), creating steam that turns a turbine to generate clean electricity.
Iceland's decision to harness the heat inside the earth in a process known as geothermal energy dates back to the 1970s and the oil crisis.
But the new geothermal well is expected to generate far more energy, as the extreme heat and pressure at that depth makes the water take the form of a "supercritical" fluid, which is neither gas nor liquid.
"We expect to get five to 10 times more power from the well than a conventional well today," said Albert Albertsson, an engineer at the Icelandic energy company HS Orka, involved in the drilling project.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 06 2017, @03:54AM (3 children)
California falls into the ocean, wiping out the tech industry. The internet is rebuilt from Soylent, ad free but with lots of begging. Spare change, dude?
(Score: 2) by Hartree on Saturday May 06 2017, @03:57AM (1 child)
Maybe we should invest in beachfront property in Barstow.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday May 06 2017, @04:17AM
Lex Luthor already patented that in 1978 with infinite extension thanks to a senate donation..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 06 2017, @10:05PM
To (once again) be a wet blanket WRT to this (bogus) imagery, the motion is NOT VERTICAL.
California's faults are of the HORIZONTAL slip-strike variety.
The Pacific Plate is moving northward past the North American Plate and toward Alaska.
Accurate imagery would have L.A. as Anchorage-adjacent--in about a million human generations.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]