On power has been chosen as one of the six exceptional nominees of the Ruggero Bertani European Geothermal Innovation Awards 2021 with “Geothermal Park” project.
The Geothermal Park is an innovative geothermal eco-industrial park located in Iceland. It is connected to the Hellisheidi geothermal combined heat and power plant, one of the largest geothermal plants in the world. The park uses the energy surplus of Hellisheidi for a small-scale hydrogen production unit and a direct-air carbon capture plant. This way, the park turns the challenge of stable geothermal energy production serving fluctuating markets into an opportunity and creates value from waste.
Multi-use of geothermal resources is not a new concept. However, each geothermal resource is different, and the possibilities of multiple utilization can be very different from site to site. The Geothermal Park’s originality is linked to the integration of the supply of resources to companies within the park, in parallel with the power plant production to increase the geothermal plants revenue streams’ flexibility.
The small-scale hydrogen production in the Geothermal Park produces hydrogen by using electricity from the Hellisheidi plant when electricity demand is low during off-peak hours. The hydrogen produced will be used to supply fuel to hydrogen vehicles in Iceland, thus promoting the energy transition from fossil fuels in the transport sector in Iceland.
The direct-air carbon capture plant operated by the company Climeworks uses surplus high-temperature geothermal fluid while heat demand is low for carbon removal directly from the ambient air. It uses the Carbfix method to permanently mineralise and store the CO2 in rock – helping with tackling the climate crisis. This plant, still under construction, is the biggest direct air-capture and storage project in the world to date.
Both projects benefit from the extremely low carbon footprint of the Hellisheidi plant. These parallel projects improved the overall utilization efficiency of the geothermal plant, thus reducing waste in terms of heat or electricity, and increasing revenues and value creation at the same time.
The winner of this year edition will be announced in Spring 2021.
Discover the six finalists of the Ruggero Bertani European Geothermal Innovation Award 2021.
Stay tuned to know more!
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