We were on the bus at 9:00 this morning. It was raining. It was windy. The temperature was about 50°F.
Our first stop was at Urriðafoss, a waterfall that although relatively unimpressive to look at, reported carried the largest volume of water of any falls in Iceland.
We passed the Bobby Fischer Center in Selfoss, the town where the famous chess champion was buried. Bobby Fischer became an Icelandic citizen after he got into trouble that resulted in his US passport being revoked while he was in Japan. By then, he had become a bit eccentric. Actually, by most accounts he was just plain bonkers.
We drove through at times thick fog to reach our second stop of the day, a geo-thermal power plant. Hellisheiði Power Station (HGPS) is the biggest in Iceland and the third-largest geothermal power station in the world.
As we approached the plant, the smell of sulphur became increasingly stronger. We were told that Icelanders call the smell the "devil's f#&t".
It was a nice change of pace that this was an indoor tour. And it was a good tour, lasting about 90 minutes.
During the course of the tour, we heard a combination of new and previously learned facts about Iceland's geology. So many good websites about it and geothermal energy can be found online that I will not endeavor even a summary here. Instead, with thanks to Wikipedia for the assist, I will bullet-point the two fundamental facts that give Iceland the geological characteristics needed to produce massive amounts of geothermal energy.
- Iceland sits on the divergent boundary between the Eurasian plate and the North American plate. In other words, although generally considered part of Europian continent, a portion of Iceland is part of the North American continent. There is a 'crack' between the two plates.
- Iceland lies above a hotspot, the Iceland Plume, which is believed to have caused the formation of Iceland itself. The shape of this plume is called "the headless cat".
In a process much more complex than I had previously imagined, Hellisheiði converts thermal energy from the Iceland Plume into electrical energy with almost no environmental pollution. Moving towards zero negative emissions, previous promising small scale experiments have now launched larger ones for charging carbon dioxide into rock.
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| gifts from Mitsubishi and Toshiba, the firms that built generating equipment |
The heated water used to create electric energy serves other needs. Safe and potable, this water travels by insulated pipe from here to Perlan ("The Pearl") located on a hilltop in Reykjavik. This famous landmark holds the ready-reserve for the city.
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| cross-section of insulated pipe that carries heated water to Reykjavik |
From Perlan, the water is piped into homes, arriving at a temperature of about 175º Fahrenheit. It is used for heating, washing, bathing, etc. Leaving houses at about 105º Fahrenheit, the water passes under the surface of the city's streets, sidewalks and bike paths, melting snow and ice during the winter. The warm water's final function before being discharged into the sea is to heat Reykjavik's sandy beach at Nauthólsvík. (Factoid - having none anywhere in Iceland, the "golden sand" on the beach had to be imported from Morocco.) The total length of this network of pipes from generating station to discharge exceeds 1,850 miles.
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| model of Perlan - "The Pearl" |
Our next destination was Reykjavik. According to Wikipedia, "Steam from hot springs in the region is said to have inspired Reykjavík's name, which loosely translates to Smoke Cove...The original name was Reykjarvík with an additional "r" that had vanished around 1800."
After lunch we went to Hallgrímskirkja, a Lutheran church located on a hill. It's location, it's 244' tower and a lift in the cloud cover combined to let us have a decent view of the city.
After viewing the church and the statue honoring Leif Erikson in front of it, we wandered around a bit, going the wrong was to see some of the more interesting streets in the neighborhood.
We checked into Fosshotel Reykjavik, one of several Fosshotels in the city. It is the biggest hotel in Reykjavik and with 18 floors the tallest. It was nice, but I preferred Canopy; the hotel we stayed in our first night here.
Back on our bus, we returned to Hallgrímskirkja, walking from there several blocks to Sjavargrillid for dinner. It had a pleasant, cozy atmosphere. The cuisine was presented with some pomp. While good, I came away thinking that the chef tried a bit too hard, but hey, I'm no foodie.
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| odd 'statue' on street near restaurant |
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