Iceland Considers Giant Cable to Sell Geothermal Power to Europe
March 8th, 2011 by 
Iceland’s largest energy company is considering construction of the world’s longest underwater electric cable so the nation can sell its vast geothermal and volcanic energy to the European market.
By the end of the year, state-owned energy company, Landsvirkjun, will complete a study of building a sub-sea cable that could deliver as much as five terawatt-hours (5 billion kilowatt-hours) annually to Europe, enough electricity to power 1.25 million homes.
Based on current energy prices, that would generate 250 to 320 million euros ($350 to $448 million) each year. It would also help Europe achieve its target of meeting 20 percent of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2020.
The cable would be as long as 1,180 miles (1,900 kilometers), depending on its destination; officials are considering linking the cable to Britain, Norway, Holland, and Germany. “The idea is to meet demand during peak hours in Europe, as well as some base load,” said Ragna Sara Jonsdottir, a company spokeswoman. Landsvirkjun produces about 75 percent of Iceland’s electricity by tapping into the nation’s huge stores of geothermal power.
Article appearing courtesy Yale Environment 360.
photo: ThinkGeoEnergy.
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its fantastic to think on such a large scale. the innovation involved will generate new thinking and ideas.
Iceland has tremendous resources in Geo-Thermal, which they used successfully to make low cost steel. Now the proposed underwater cable would allow them to export more of their resources (energy). Unfortunately, there is a huge challenge in a sub-sea power line, in that such a long distance of transmission has never been created; hence electrical transmission technology must advance to meet this large challenge. I am looking toward super conducting cables, and mid water column floating cables as some options. The downsides of such a project is that the cables are expensive, and hard to fix if they break. At half a billion dollars a year in potential revenues, I am sure there are several large energy companies examining this project.
Dr. Brian Glassman
Ph.D. in Innovation Management from Purdue University
Assistance Editor for the IJIS
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