Iceland, the powerhouse of the world?

Discussion in 'Earth Science' started by ULTRA, Dec 6, 2011.

  1. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    I doubt you would even notice.
     
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  3. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

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    This is impossible, you cant transmit electricity over that sort of distance. Hell Australia has difficulty transmitting electricity backwards and forwards from tassie and that's just off the coast.

    I guess you COULD use the energy to split hydrogen from water and then transmit THAT but I don't know how efficient that would be
     
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  5. adoucette Caca Occurs Valued Senior Member

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    Well that's just your problem then.

    Long-distance transmission of electricity (thousands of kilometers) is cheap and efficient, with costs of US$0.005–0.02/kWh (compared to annual averaged large producer costs of US$0.01–0.025/kWh, retail rates upwards of US$0.10/kWh

    This is about 5 times as far as Tasmania is from your coast

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    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_DC_Intertie
     
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  7. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    No, it's 26.2%. (from wiki). Let's see Iceland become energy independent and then we'll talk.
     
  8. adoucette Caca Occurs Valued Senior Member

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    No, that number was just what the GT Power Plants produced by way of electricity.
    They get a lot more primary energy directly as heat/hot water from GT.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_Iceland

    http://www.landsvirkjun.com/operations/electricity-production/
     
  9. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    Oh I see, thanks.
     
  10. Trippy ALEA IACTA EST Staff Member

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    No. The Inter-island HVDC connection is actually 610km long, it runs from Benmore to Hutt Valley, and it's Bi-directional.

    Not exclusively, no.
     
  11. Robittybob1 Banned Banned

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    You are correct, but what I said is the general perception, enough to be bandied around in a hypothetical discussion like this one.

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  12. Trippy ALEA IACTA EST Staff Member

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    Of course I am.

    I disagree.

    No, it was factually inaccurate, and very definitely misleading. It creates a false impression.

    For example.
    According to Siemens Energy losses from HVDC and UHVDC power transmission are around 3%/1000km.

    Most of the loss, and cost comes from the AC-DC conversion equipment, and that can be 'recovered' over surprisingly short distances.

    Not only that, but Xiangjiaba - Shanghai has an overhead line length of 1,980km and a total loss of 7% (lower voltages would be closer to 10%), and the Rio Madeira Link is 2500km long (or it will be when completed).

    And finally, even a modicum of research would have revealed that an HVDC link between Iceland and the UK is one of several proposals currently being considered.
    EG: Source, Source.
     
  13. Robittybob1 Banned Banned

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  14. kwhilborn Banned Banned

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    Although this topic is far fetched, I was amazed at how Iceland powers itself.

    Iceland has a giant power plant.

    Guess how many people run it?

    2. Or it was 2. Could be 3 by now. There is not much maintenance apparently, and I guess contractors would come in for anything serious.

    Iceland also runs heated water under its sidewalks to melt the snow and ice.

    Awesome!
     
  15. Aqueous Id flat Earth skeptic Valued Senior Member

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    Because of the abundance of geothermal and hydroelectric sources Iceland was targeted by Alcoa Aluminum. As some of you know, aluminum production uses a lot of electricity. So it seemed the ideal way to economize. However, smelters are dirty. Icelanders reacted, and Alcoa has had a public relations problem there for many years.

    Since learning of this disconnect between the abundance of energy reserves and the environmentally unfriendly smelting operation, I have wondered if they might instead use their free electricity to manufacture solar cells - also an energy hog. Compared to aluminum, it is a cleaner process. Though wasteful (low inefficiency of solar cells) it's better than letting the heat - and melting glacier - go unused.
     
  16. billvon Valued Senior Member

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    The world uses about 132,000 terawatt-hours of energy a year. Iceland has the potential to produce about 50 terawatt-hours a year, or .03% of the world's energy needs.
     
  17. Aqueous Id flat Earth skeptic Valued Senior Member

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    hmmm... what's .03% of ...how much global expenditure?

    wooh!

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    ka-ching!
     
  18. ULTRA Realistically Surreal Registered Senior Member

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    All it takes is a little co-operation and I can fix this. I think this should be easy.
    People need jobs too, it wouldnt take long really. I will put pofits into feeding the hungry and water to the thirsty, more jobs.
     
    Last edited: Dec 7, 2011
  19. Thdaoub Guest

    There are so much geothermal energy in Iceland.
     
  20. billvon Valued Senior Member

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    For an island - yes, more than enough to provide all their power.

    For a planet - no, it's a tiny, tiny fraction of the power we need overall.
     
  21. quadraphonics Bloodthirsty Barbarian Valued Senior Member

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    The main thing that Iceland does to export its power generation surplus is to produce aluminum, and then export that. The vast majority of the price of aluminum consists of the cost of the energy used in the electrolytic process employed in aluminum refinement. People sometimes call aluminum "solid electricity" for this reason.
     
  22. quadraphonics Bloodthirsty Barbarian Valued Senior Member

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    Those figures are for transmission over land. Undersea cables are an entirely different ballgame. Installation and repair are orders of magnitude more expensive, you need insultation and armoring, possibly DC conversion equipment, etc.

    The world's longest submarine power cable is only about 350 miles long. Transmission costs are like an order of mangitude larger than what you cite for long-distance land transmission.
     
  23. billvon Valued Senior Member

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    Most modern long distance power transmission (including the one in the post you're replying to) are DC.
     

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