SPECIAL FEATURE
Renewable electricity generation from geothermal energy, as of 2020: Kenya: 55% Philippines: 50% GEOTHERMAL PROGRESS
I n 1864, Professor Otto Lidenbrock travelled to Iceland with his nephew Axel to abseil deep into the iconic Snæfellsjökull volcano, 120km northwest of the capital Reykjavik. In typical 19 th century fashion, with little care for life or limb, the intrepid German explorers embarked on a long and perilous journey, narrowly surviving a series of cave-ins, subpolar tornadoes and prehistoric creatures, as narrated by Jules Verne in A Journey to the Center of the Earth . That expedition was of course fictional, but the exploratory work going on beneath our feet – worldwide – has rarely been more promising, or indeed more essential given the urgency of the climate crisis. “Here in Iceland, we've been promoting geothermal energy since the 1970s,” says Dr. Gudni Axelsson, head of the GRÓ Geothermal Training Programme under the auspices of UNESCO. “But it's not very well-known in the rest of the world because it's mostly underground and difficult to visualize.” Above ground the sun shines, water
flows and wind blows; elemental, renewable energy surrounds us with its bounty. Austria, blessed with an alpine landscape and mighty rivers, bases half its total installed power capacity and generates three-quarters of its renewable electricity from hydropower, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA); meanwhile Italy, home of the “mezzogiorno” midday sun, generates more than 20 percent of its renewable electricity from solar photovoltaics. “Geothermal still represents a small fraction of all energy use in the world,” says Axelsson. “But it’s been growing rapidly in recent decades and is now quite significant in some countries and not only Iceland.” As of 2020, the lion’s share of renewable electricity in Kenya,
Nicaragua: 28%
the Philippines and Nicaragua came from geothermal energy, responsible for over 55 percent, 50 percent and 28 percent respectively of the countries’ renewable electricity generation, according to IRENA.
Here in Iceland, we've been promoting geothermal energy since the 1970s. But it's not very well-known in the rest of the world because it's mostly underground and difficult to visualize.
Dr. Gudni Axelsson, Head of GRÓ Geothermal Training Programme
19
Powered by FlippingBook