There is a great deal of activity in Geldinganes in Reykjavík. Everything is almost ready there for large drilling rigs that will drill deep into the earth to find usable hot water.
Veitur (Reykjavík Energy utilities company) plans to drill for hot water in Geldinganes in Reykjavík, which covers 220 hectares. Drilling will begin later in March.
During drilling in Geldinganes in the 1990s a geothermal system with temperatures of 90 to 100 degrees was discovered. The wells drilled at that time did not yield sufficient water. Veitur now plans to drill wells up to one and a half kilometres deep. The aim is to find better permeability, as it is called, so that the geothermal system can be used for district heating.
In recent weeks residents in Grafarvogur near Geldinganes have noticed almost constant lorry traffic across the to Geldinganes. The work was not preparation for the construction of [the road] Sundabraut, but involved transporting gravel to strengthen the road across the peninsula and prepare a drilling pad, which is now ready.
“More than five thousand cubic metres went into this pad here. That’s quite a few trips,” says Marinó Pálmason, managing director of Dráttarbílar, which is carrying out the earthworks.
Photo: RÚV / Víðir Hólm Ólafsson
The first well will be drilled with a 40-tonne drilling rig and the others with a more powerful 100-tonne rig. The wells will be twelve to fifteen hundred metres deep.
We are trenching for the well casing pipes – steel pipes that will be concreted down here.
How far down do you have to go?
Six metres from the surface of the pad.
When do you think you will be finished so the rig can be brought here?
In about a week, maybe just over a week.
If the exploratory drilling is successful, more wells will be drilled over the next two to three years. It will then be possible to expand the district heating supply in the capital area as the population grows and thousands of new homes are planned in the coming years.
It can be very windy in Geldinganes because it is exposed to the sea. Marinó says he likes the peninsula very much.
Sometimes it’s absolute paradise – calm and mild weather and you can watch the whales here. And then sometimes it can be difficult even to get out of the machines.
Source: Ruv.is
