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**mv37afnr** · 06-28-2007, 05:13 AM

Originally posted by VetLegion
Why didn't Iceland decide to go all geothermal? Isn't it usually mentioned as an example of having plenty of geothermal power? I don't think Geothermal has the grunt required for heavy industry. Here's some perspective. The bluff aluminium smelter in New Zealand consumes 13% of the countries entire elecitricty output - it's powered by a hydroeletric powerplant in Fiordland (taking advantage of the height differential between a lake and the sea using tunnels, it's not a dam per-se)

When you consider New Zealand has (significantly more than) 10x the population of Iceland, if things scale proportionally, a similar smelter would consume 130% of the power of all of Iceland.

Geothermal is not going to cut it.

edit: It's also worth noting that Geothermal is a lot more efficient for home heating (through heat exchange) than raw power generation, geothermal has more potential to save power used on heating, than to generate power. Which gets back to the "it's not a grunty power source", unlike water+gravity.

06-28-2007, 05:13 AM	#12
mv37afnr Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 412 Senior Member	Originally posted by VetLegion Why didn't Iceland decide to go all geothermal? Isn't it usually mentioned as an example of having plenty of geothermal power? I don't think Geothermal has the grunt required for heavy industry. Here's some perspective. The bluff aluminium smelter in New Zealand consumes 13% of the countries entire elecitricty output - it's powered by a hydroeletric powerplant in Fiordland (taking advantage of the height differential between a lake and the sea using tunnels, it's not a dam per-se) When you consider New Zealand has (significantly more than) 10x the population of Iceland, if things scale proportionally, a similar smelter would consume 130% of the power of all of Iceland. Geothermal is not going to cut it. edit: It's also worth noting that Geothermal is a lot more efficient for home heating (through heat exchange) than raw power generation, geothermal has more potential to save power used on heating, than to generate power. Which gets back to the "it's not a grunty power source", unlike water+gravity.
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