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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, @10:25PM
Azuma did a good job on this one.
To think that our species would be able to extract enough energy from the core to make a dent is typical human hubris.
...and a lack of appreciation for just how BIG cosmological stuff is.
That said, the photos of the earth from space reveal just what a tiny portion of the whole deal Earth's biosphere is.
It's a thin, wispy band at/near the surface.
-That- is that part (our lifeboat) that's on its way to being unrecoverably altered by human actions.
.
...and it's "lose" that rhymes with "clues".
"Loose" rhymes with "moose".
(I used to get those wrong a lot too before I figured out the crutch).
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