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?
I learned that using water to make electricity is very good because you don’t create air pollution. It is like a tea kettle when you create evaporation from making tea. It creates smoke
We think that Iceland is doing very good to the environment because instead of using fossil fuels they use steam to create energy.
I think that the way that people in Iceland have learned to harness electricity by using steam without polluting the air is amazing I hope we can find ways to do something like this in places around the world.
Louie and I think that it is so amazing amazing and fascinating how Iceland takes the heat from magma underground to heat pools and make electricity in their houses.
It looks like the power plant in Ice land makes a lot of steam.
We think that the geothermal energy is a really good way to slow down climate change. In Iceland, they use geothermal energy that helps save a lot of money, as well as reducing air pollution. The geothermal energy has a very good cause, and in the 1970’s, when the geothermal energy started being used, there were dramatic changes in amounts of pollution. This is very good to do with the heated water, and We think they thought of a very good use for it. We think Iceland should keep doing this, and we hope a lot more pollution problems will be fixed. We hope the U.S.A finds a better way to make electricity soon.
We think that this is a very productive idea that does not waste energy and has a very interesting produce.
We learned that natural hot water can make electricity which is really cool because people put wells in the ground and then the wells suck the water up and then it extracts the steam and the steam is generated into electricity.
I think it is amazing that the geothermal power can create heat. That pool was also pretty awesome too! I wish I could go to Iceland!
What we read was very interesting. We can not believe that you create energy with steam! They are smart for inventing that idea. They get the steam all the way into the ground!
I learned that a geothermal plant can make energy for a lot of houses. Also a turbine can presure hot water.
If iceland is cool then people would like to be in the waters of blue lagoon. And I am amazed that there are new green ways to make power.
I think it is very cool that Iceland can generate electricity without burning fossil fuels. I would like to live there.
I think that it’s cool how people in iceland use heat as electricity!
We think that it’s so cool that steam can cause cheep power.
It’s also interesting that they pump the remaining water back into the earth.
I think this was a great invention for not just our community but the entire world. Slowing down global warming is a very important matter and we should continue to share this event to make this world better for us and future generations, hopefully everyone will take part in helping the world.
I never knew that Iceland creates very little air pollution!! It is so amazing! It is also great how electricity doesn’t cost as much money in Iceland as in the United States so the Icelandic people can spend money on fun things to do in Iceland. I would love to go in a big HOT tub! I can’t believe that the water was used by the power station to make steam! Incredible!!!
I think this is an amazing invention. This will help our world in slowing down global warming, making a better non polluted place for generations to come.
That’s amazing how we can generate electricity from steam instead of burning fossil fuels.
I thought that was so cool how there was an area of hot water and that its like a huge hot tub.It looks really relaxing and fun.
We think that it is great that natural how water can create electricity.
We thought that the Geothermal Power Plant in Iceland was really interesting and educational. We also thought that the fact that the hot water is used to generate electricity was really cool!
Both of us didn’t know that the geothermal plant worked from a water well and the magma is heating the well which is producing the energy for the plant to work. We thought this was really interesting. 😀
I amazed about the power plants not using any fossil fuels to make electricity. I wonder why they don’t use this method in the United States of America?
I think that I know the answer to your question. We can’t use it here in the US because we don’t have many volcanoes and so that means there is not so much lava underneath the surface. That means not a lot of heat for the hot water.
It would be really interesting if the US could find a way to do something like this. Maybe they could use underwater volcanoes to get the hot water they need.
I think it is very cool how the icelanders use heat as energey