Iceland’s Geothermal Story

A tourist’s perspective may be different than a resident’s perspective however, as a tourist I was nervous when I saw steam billowing out of the ground.

It was not coming from a factory…that I would not have thought twice about. This steam was coming directly out of the ground!

 

In Iceland geothermal energy plays a major role in the lives of Icelanders, so to the locals this was a normal scene and a positive scene.

 

But as a tourist seeing steam rising from the ground is a bit unnerving.

 

 

 

 

 

Would you feel safe traveling in this area, knowing that such intense heat lay just below the surface?

 

Rather scary, huh?

Especially when you learn that oral records say that this area used to be covered with vegetation so dense that one could hardly move. Is there a connection to be made?

Even scarier, isn’t it.

But then as you look off in the distance you see huge thermal power plants. And beside the road you see above ground pipes that seem to run forever.

And your guide explains the important role played by thermal energy in Iceland.

 Oil? Gas? No, these pipes carry hot water. (And I mean really HOT water).

Water heated by that “steam”.

This hot water is headed for Reykjavik where it will be used to heat homes and provide hot water for washing, etc. Our guide tells us the water is so hot that it has to be cooled down before it is released for household use.

Having household heat made a huge positive difference to the life expectancy rates in Iceland our guide tells us.

Aside: Now that fact does change my view of the steam rising out of the ground.

Huge storage tanks are found in the city. The Perlan (huge water storage tanks sitting on a high spot above the city) has become somewhat of a tourist attraction.

Aside: The Perlan is one of the stops on the hop-on hop-off bus route so I got off there planning to have lunch in the cafe. This turned out to be a wise move because without lunch it would have been a long wait before the next bus came to pick me up.

As the Perlan is on one of the highest points around the views are lovely. If you have been in the city even for a few days it is interesting to pick out places you have been and decide on other areas you might like to visit.

It was windy the day I was there (and okay I was not dressed properly for the temperature) so I did not spend much time on the outside deck…but the views through the cafe’s wall of windows was just as good.

Perlan sumary: Lunch was delicious (and reasonably priced given to the high cost of seemingly everything in Reykjavik). The views were interesting, The gift shop upstairs was a small but lovely Christmas shop (I love Christmas shops) and the gift shop on the main floor had some items I had not seen elsewhere.

And the fact that I was inside a hot water storage facility did not freak me out!

Then I went outside to wait for my bus and discovered my best thing about the Perlan…

 To see more of our trip to Iceland, click here.

To join us on other adventures around the world, click here.

Happy travels!