Iceland review - 2013, Qupperneq 76

74 ICELAND REVIEW
150 million people in a region of approxi-
mately 300 million inhabitants, where ener-
gy needs are rapidly growing. The high costs
of drilling have been a major hindrance,
though, leaving geothermal potential largely
untapped except for a number of projects in
Kenya and Ethiopia. It will be some time,
though, before sites identified as harboring
potential are developed and energy can be
produced, Davíð stresses.
There are other challenges too, as Clean
Energy Program Team Leader at the World
Bank, Pierre Audinet, explains. “The big-
gest challenge is the lack of capital both for
governments but also the private sector. The
other big challenge is the regulatory envi-
ronment. The legal framework sometimes
needs improvement for the government
to ensure that it gets the best from its own
resources when it’s developed by the private
sector,” Pierre says, adding that there has
also been little emphasis on geothermal in
much of the developing world. “Apart from
two or three countries where it is big, like
Kenya, Indonesia or the Philippines, it’s still
insufficiently on the radar so we need to
scale that up.”
Ogola too highlights the challenging
conditions in some areas. “We need to train
more people and we need more infrastruc-
ture. In some areas there is no water so we
need to start by looking for water, building
roads and then transporting equipment to
the site, sometimes over very hilly areas.”
This also brings into question the poten-
tial to reach communities in particularly
remote areas away from the grid. “The
government needs to provide a reliable
and affordable resource to its population,
increasing energy access, and the private
sector wants to have the resource proven
and risk mitigated. So it’s a question of mar-
rying these two things,” Zemedkhun says.
ICEIDA is one of the agencies looking
into ways to increase rural electrification
through smaller geothermal plants which
operate off grid, Davíð says.
LooKINg AfAr
Icelandic consultancy companies are
expected to take part in the new East
Africa project too. “Iceland has substantial
expertise that we feel we can share with
other countries. Many of the studies will
be subject to international tenders but we
of course hope that Icelandic tenders will
be competitive. There are also other aspects
related to capacity building where Icelandic
knowledge is also valuable and the United
Nations University is a key partner in the
project,” Davíð says.
Icelandic consultancy companies are
already active in more than 40 countries.
Among them is state-owned ÍSOR – Iceland
geoSurvey, which provides consulting and
other services relating to geothermal explo-
ration, development and utilization as well
as environmental impact and groundwater
assessments. One of ÍSOR’s main contribu-
tions to the development of geothermal
abroad, though, is the provision of training
services at the UNU-gTP; ÍSOR provides
many of the program’s teaching staff, says
spokesperson Brynja Jónsdóttir.
Another company, Orka Energy, special-
izes in geothermal investment and develop-
ment in Asia with operations in Singapore,
China and the Philippines. CEO gunnar
Thoroddsen explains that the company is
currently focused on two projects in the
region. “The first is for geothermal heat-
ing in China, and it’s been going very
well there—through a joint venture with
Sinopec Star Petroleum we are currently the
largest geothermal district heating company
in China. The other major project involves
the building of a 50MW geothermal power
plant in the Philippines, where we have
been working for several years now. We
expect exploration drilling to start this sum-
mer and for the plant to be fully operational
by the end of 2015.”
HArNeSSINg SoLutIoNS
Former Minister for Foreign Affairs Össur
Skarphéðinsson, who worked on the East
Africa project over the past few years,
says that geothermal innovation in Iceland
will be of particular help to volcanically
active countries like those along the East
African Rift Valley. “We are developing new-
breaking edge technology such as deep-
drilling that in volcanic countries, such as
all the East-African, some Asian and Latin-
American countries as well, may in future
enhance the yield from each field five to
ten times.”
Davíð at ICEIDA points out that Iceland
is also playing an active role in the devel-
opment of geothermal outside of Africa.
“We just completed a five-year project in
Nicaragua in November,” he states.
Nicaraguan Minister for Energy and Mines
Emilio Rappaccioli said in a statement to the
press that the project had been a great suc-
cess. “Icelanders assisted us to better under-
stand the potential of geothermal energy in
the various regions of the country,” he said,
adding that a lot of work had also been done
in safeguarding resources in protected areas.
According to Össur, the importance of
Iceland’s contribution through the UNU-
gTP as well as the funding and techni-
cal assistance on the ground is significant.
“These two steps, with Iceland playing
leading roles in both, will revolutionize the
possibilities of poor countries with geother-
mal potential to utilize their resources for
production of renewable energy. Of course
I realize that geothermal is not going to
save the planet, but it will be a part of the
solution. In my view geothermal is still an
underestimated and undervalued source of
energy and with the use of Icelandic experi-
ence will be easier to harness.”
You don’t have to be a superpower to have
an influence—but you have to possess an
expert knowledge. Iceland does in geother-
mal,” Össur concludes. 
ENERGY
The East African Rift valley has massive geothermal potential. Development of the
resource is expected to bring social and economic change, significantly improving the
living standards of up to 150 million in the region.