Australia, Iceland, and U.S. Partner for Advancement of Geothermal Technology

Written by Timothy B. Hurst
Published on August 30th, 2008
4 Comments
Posted in Center, Energy, International Politics, Leader

Australia, the United States and Iceland have signed the charter of the International Partnership for Geothermal Technology, designed to facilitate shared knowledge and build strategic partnerships for the development of geothermal energy. The framework brings international collaboration on the diffusion of policy and the technical aspects of advanced geothermal systems (EGS) such as deep drilling and geothermal energy conversion.

“Enhanced geothermal systems have the potential to be the world’s only ever-present form of baseload renewable energy,” said Deparment of Energy Acting Assistant Secretary Katharine Fredriksen.

>>Read more about geothermal on the Green Options Network

The partnership will certainly make use of Iceland’s experience with geothermal energy.  The tiny island nation in the North Atlantic gets about one quarter of its electricity from geothermal, in addition to the roughly 90 percent of the energy it needs to heat and provide hot water for buildings. Iceland is also fortunate to have a tremendous hydropower resource, which, put together with geothermal, accounts for 99% of the nation’s electricity generation.

The countries in the partnership will work on the deployment of EGS and deep drilling technologies, exchange best practices and support education and training programs.

Photo: Francesco_G via flickr under a Creative Commons License

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4 Comments

  1. 1
    Adam said on August 30th, 2008 at 5:54 pm

    This is great. I was just having a conversation today with a skeptic who was saying that we need to wait another 30 to 50 years before we have the tech and the info-structure to institute renewable energy. I told him that Iceland had been using Geo-Thermal for years. When will people get a clue and when will the U.S. figure out that there is money to be made (the only thing that motivates them) in this type of technology?

    Adam
    http://www.twilightearth.com

  2. 2
    Professor Chuck Kezar said on September 19th, 2008 at 5:21 am

    The agreement should include drilling to tap into magam and experiment with the inrotduction of water as and EGS system. The steam potential is ten times a shallow well and the chemistry between water and magma will produce unending large quantities of hydrogen. This hydrogen will not have to be made with electricity but is a natural chemical reaction and is a renewable storable energy.CAK

  3. 3
    Timothy B. Hurst said on September 19th, 2008 at 5:25 am

    Prof. Kezar-
    Thanks for your comment. I haven’t poured through the details of the agreement, but it seems like this is something that it should/could cover.

  4. 4
    United States Opening 190 Million Acres to Geothermal Energy Development : Red, Green, and Blue said on October 22nd, 2008 at 10:03 pm

    [...] and Greenland should swap names ironically). Of course, maybe it’s also that Iceland gets around 25% of its entire electricity from geothermal power, and also uses it to heat buildings and provide hot running water to its [...]

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