Iceland's Plan to Drill Into a Volcano to Test 'Limitless' Supercharged Geothermal Energy (cnn.com) 44
In Iceland, "a volcanic system has awoken after an 800-year slumber," according to a multimedia CNN Special Report. "But in another part of Iceland, scientists and engineers are hoping to harness magma's immense power to solve the planet's biggest problem..."
It all started in 2009 when Bjarni Pálsson, an engineer with Iceland's national power company, accidentally drilled into a magma chamber. "Armed with new technology and know-how, he is going back in..." The ambition of the geothermal experts and volcanologists that comprise the Krafla Magma Testbed is to convert the immense heat and pressure into a new "limitless" form of supercharged geothermal energy — a tantalizing prospect as the world struggles to end its relationship with planet-heating fossil fuels. "This has never been done before," said Hjalti Páll Ingólfsson, director of the Geothermal Research Cluster, which developed the project....
If all goes to plan, the first borehole will be completed in 2027 and will mark the first time anyone has ever implanted sensors directly into a magma chamber... If the first drilling experiment succeeds, the team will move onto the second borehole, due to be completed in 2029 — and this could be the global gamechanger. It's here the team will attempt to harness the intense heat of magma to produce a new kind of extreme geothermal energy, many times more powerful than conventional...
If they succeed, the implications could reverberate around the world, Ingólfsson said. There are an estimated 800 million people living within roughly 60 miles of an active volcano.
The report includes a map showing volcano sites around the earth where similar drilling could theoretically unleash the same intense magma-powered extreme geothermal energy.
Iceland's plan is to drill down 1.2 miles — about 2 kilometers — into a magma chamber that's around 1,800 Fahrenheit (nearly 1,000 degrees Celsius). The engineering feat "won't be easy," the article acknowledges. "But as humans heat the planet at record speed with fossil fuel pollution, there is increasing pressure to perform moonshot feats of engineering to save us from ourselves."
It all started in 2009 when Bjarni Pálsson, an engineer with Iceland's national power company, accidentally drilled into a magma chamber. "Armed with new technology and know-how, he is going back in..." The ambition of the geothermal experts and volcanologists that comprise the Krafla Magma Testbed is to convert the immense heat and pressure into a new "limitless" form of supercharged geothermal energy — a tantalizing prospect as the world struggles to end its relationship with planet-heating fossil fuels. "This has never been done before," said Hjalti Páll Ingólfsson, director of the Geothermal Research Cluster, which developed the project....
If all goes to plan, the first borehole will be completed in 2027 and will mark the first time anyone has ever implanted sensors directly into a magma chamber... If the first drilling experiment succeeds, the team will move onto the second borehole, due to be completed in 2029 — and this could be the global gamechanger. It's here the team will attempt to harness the intense heat of magma to produce a new kind of extreme geothermal energy, many times more powerful than conventional...
If they succeed, the implications could reverberate around the world, Ingólfsson said. There are an estimated 800 million people living within roughly 60 miles of an active volcano.
The report includes a map showing volcano sites around the earth where similar drilling could theoretically unleash the same intense magma-powered extreme geothermal energy.
Iceland's plan is to drill down 1.2 miles — about 2 kilometers — into a magma chamber that's around 1,800 Fahrenheit (nearly 1,000 degrees Celsius). The engineering feat "won't be easy," the article acknowledges. "But as humans heat the planet at record speed with fossil fuel pollution, there is increasing pressure to perform moonshot feats of engineering to save us from ourselves."
Atlantis the sequel? (Score:1)
Asking for a friend... (Score:2)
What could possibly go wrong?
Re:Asking for a friend... (Score:5, Insightful)
what hasn't already gone wrong?
our greed has managed to pollute and unbalance an entire biosphere
Re: (Score:1)
Don't be such an alarmist. Its only one.
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it's the only one
just saying
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what hasn't already gone wrong?
our greed has managed to pollute and unbalance an entire biosphere
Man's presence will change the planet. There's no getting around that. We're going to make mistakes learning the best way to manage things. There's no getting around that either. The alternative is to go back to wearing animal skins and living in caves.
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The alternative is to go back to wearing animal skins and living in caves.
That's a Hobson's choice you're offering and you know it.
We certainly can do things more complicated than cave dwelling without destroying the entire planet. The problem is that we have a few powerful idiots who refuse to.
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No Hobson here, the choice is clear, we need to act ethically
unethical actions have consequences
Re: (Score:2)
bullshit, you're making excuses for evil people who have no self-restraint and no integrity. indeed, lots of cultures lived without exploiting their environment and without entrenched classism
just more evil rich people justifying an evil economy that privileges them above others
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Because of course they wouldn't, just like with Fossil fuels, the powers that be don't care about tomorrow as long as they a
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exactly, the upper class uses it's stolen wealth in order to isolate itself from the effects of its own unsustainable actions but everything has limits
except greed, which is why these evil, irresponsible rich people will take us past the point of no return
upper class greed is exactly why civilizations collapse into moral decay
Re:Asking for a friend... (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Nothing. They have scientists on this project.
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Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Asking for a friend... (Score:4)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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What could possibly go wrong?
Finding a volunteer to hold the drill, I guess.
Obviously ... (Score:2)
Iceland's Plan to Drill Into a Volcano ...
Not the one with Elon's [pinimg.com] secret base though. :-)
Re: (Score:2, Offtopic)
You can spot the fascists by their hate of communists (a label they liberally apply) and antifa. Think about who has was so big on bashing antifa... The suckers will go for anybody who is good with rubes.
Fascinating (Score:5, Interesting)
Great piece. It would be interesting to know more about these sensors they want to install. Must be difficult to make ones that can survive those temps.
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You can buy them off the shelf for various industrial processes involving very high temperatures. They made them out of materials with a very high melting point, and they provide either a thermocouple output or some have an IR sensor.
Probably the main issue they will have is protecting the cable leading to the sensor, as in industrial processes it's typically on the other side of some hefty insulation so doesn't get all that hot, relatively speaking.
Re:Fascinating (Score:4, Informative)
https://sea.omega.com/th/pptst... [omega.com]
Price not given, if you have to ask...
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MAG-ma (Score:5, Funny)
The person leading this effort doesn't happen to be bald, wear silver Nehru suits, and have a penchant for touching the corner of his mouth with his pinky?
Bonus points for sharks with frickin' lasers on their foreheads.
Should be fun (Score:3)
increasing pressure to perform moonshot feats
Where can I sit and watch the drill rig go flying? At least they stand a chance of hitting the moon before Boeing.
MIT's Quaise Energy doing it everywhere (Score:5, Informative)
An MIT spinoff called Quaise Energy wants to generalize beyond volcanoes for high-temp geothermal.
https://energy.mit.edu/news/mi... [mit.edu]
The brilliant part of their plan is that they need a lot of energy to drill the deep holes. So, since you can drill anywhere, plan on drilling at coal-fired power plants scheduled to be shut down, extending the plant's operation until the hole is finished, and then switching over to geothermal using the plant's existing infrastructure. Win-win.
people are lazy slobs (Score:2)
Prior art (Score:3)
Re: (Score:1)
I came here just to post this, thanks for restoring my faith that other people watched the same Saturday Sci-Fi B-movies as me!
Jules Verne missed a trick there. (Score:3)
Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne begins with the characters descending into the Earth drilling through the Snaefellsjökull volcano in Iceland.
My ex wife is from a village at the foot of Snaefellsjökull. I've spent a fair bit of time there.
Bjarni Pálsson is also a friend of mine from when he was studying in Edinburgh 25+ years ago.
Ironically I now live in New Zealand and the Kiwi's, I'm sure, will be watching this development with interest.
Maybe I'll be seeing Bjarni down this way in the not too distant future.
It's one of those "why haven't we tried this already?", things isn't it?
Maybe we have the tech know how now to pull it off.
All that power beneath our feet, everywhere.
10% Benefit (Score:2)
Okay, there's 8 billion people on Earth.
So 8 B = 8000 M
8000M/800M = 10% of the global population can get magma chamber volcano power.
Yipee.
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If it's cheap enough, they could make hydrogen with the energy.