Iceland, a small island-state freezing in the waters of the North Atlantic Ocean, plays a leading role in the world of geothermal energy. In the past two decades five major geothermal power plants have been built on the island. Now those power plants providing quoter of the Iceland’s energy and supplying almost all buildings in the country with the heat and hot water.
Geothermal energy considered to be clean and environmentally friendly. However, the average amount of greenhouse gases emission per kWh of power produced is just a three-five times lower than that of the natural gas power plants and much greater that that of the atomic power plants. The good thing is that geothermal power is certainly sustainable, because no fuel of any kind needed and the source of the energy—the heat of the Earth core—is not going anywhere in the foreseeable future.
Besides that, the geothermal power plants are just beautiful. Mostly, because they are strategically placed in the areas of high vulcanism, among the volcanoes and the geyser fields. Here are some photos of the most well known Icelandic geothermal power plant—Nesjavellir Geothermal Power Station.
