Here in Iceland, the geothermal power plant behind me uses renewable energy. It uses water and heat from the ground. Iceland doesn’t have to worry about “using it up”. It’s renewable!

Iceland uses heat from under the ground to create energy.

 Look at the geothermal power plant in the video below. It’s very large. Many pipes of hot water lead to it, so it can use the hot water’s steam to generate electricity. (Sorry about all the noise in the video. That’s the wind blowing through the microphone. The geothermal plant is very quiet.)

This pod covers a drill that goes deep into the ground. It’s pulling out hot water to send to the power plant down the hill.

The geothermal plants don’t need to burn air-polluting coal to create electricity. Instead, they create steam by heating up water.

Holes are drilled into the ground until they reach the hot water that naturally flows underground in Iceland. Click on the picture to read about the process: hot water’s steam to electricity.

The steam from the hot water has lots of pressure to push large turbines around and around. As the turbines move, they create electricity.

This is a sample turbine. The pressure of hot water’s steam pushes it around. As it rotates, it generates electricity.

This video shows a working model of the hot water and steam as it travels from the drill site on the left, past the turbines, and out of the plant as electricity on the right.

Inside the geothermal plant, I saw lots of machinery. The workers harness the hot water’s steam by sending it through large pipes and past a turbine, so it will turn and generate electricity. The electricity then travels out through electric wires.

 The electricity made by the geothermal plant is sent through wires to homes and businesses throughout Iceland.

This line graph shows the large amounts of poisonous carbon dioxide that used to be produced by Iceland’s power plants when they burned coal to generate electricity. When Iceland began using geothermal power in the 1970’s, much less carbon dioxide went into the air.

Iceland’s power plants create very little air pollution when they generate electricity, unlike most American power plants that generate lots of air pollution when they burn coal to make electricity. This also makes Iceland’s electricity very cheap. People who live there spend very little money on electricity, so they have more money for the fun things in life.  🙂 

Taking a rest on some cooled lava. Behind the geothermal station you see in the distance is a nice warm pool of water the power station no longer needs. Chirpy says, “Let’s go see the big bird bath!”

Near one of the power stations, the hot water that’s been used to create electricity is piped to a large outdoor pool before it continues on its way to the ocean. It’s become a tourist attraction for Icelandic people, as well as people visiting Iceland from around the world. I can tell you from first-hand experience, that no matter the weather, this water is always nice and warm. 🙂 

The water is warm and lovely. There’s a swim-up bar on the far side of the island. “A Blueberry Smoothie please!”

The “Blue Lagoon” has water flowing into it and out of it at all times. The water was used by the power station to make steam. Can you see the power station in the background, under the rainbow?