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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 Sunday May 07 2017, @02:11AM (1 child)
Your stuck-in-the-last-century denialism is noted and rejected.
There's LOTS of unused surface area (rooftops) available to collect the non-polluting energy.
That's also available when demand is greatest.
For the rest, battery technology has made giant leaps and continues to do so.
Nukes remain the most expensive way ever devised to boil water.
Trusting their design, operation, and upkeep to humans has already shown itself to be a horrible idea.
Just stop already.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 07 2017, @01:33PM
Your stuck-in-the-last-century denialism is noted and rejected.
At least we could have avoided mass starvation last century. I'm not so sure we can anymore.
There's LOTS of unused surface area (rooftops) available to collect the non-polluting energy.
Surface area isn't really the problem. The problem is sustainability, production capacity and the need to stop burning fucking coal last fucking century. And fission is no more polluting than the toxic crap that goes into building panels, the only difference is that the former is easier to contain because it all gets dumped from the reactor instead of all over everyone's poorly maintained rooftop installations.
For the rest, battery technology has made giant leaps and continues to do so.
I'd rather not gamble urgent issues on technology that might not be invented in a 100 years if it's even physically possible.
Nukes remain the most expensive way ever devised to boil water.
Cost is irrelevant. Fission is the only non-polluting means of sustained energy generation right now. We need sustained energy generation right now.
Trusting their design, operation, and upkeep to humans has already shown itself to be a horrible idea.
No it hasn't. Nuclear accidents are big and attention grabbing but the negative effects of them in the last few decades have been insignificant. Furthermore, among both of our examples, the problems that allowed them have been solved decades ago. In the case of Fukushima, the only reason we had to use the old reactor design was because people like you keep whining when we try to build better reactors.
Just stop already.
Is your brain starting to hurt yet? That's called cognitive dissonance. The cure is admitting the truth, the pain is not going to stop no matter how hard you try to reject reality.