Iceland To Drill Hottest Hole Ever to Tap Magma for Energy Production

New Scientist has an interesting article which reports on a project Iceland to drill the hottest hole on earth. See: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2109872-iceland-drills-hottest-hole-to-tap-into-energy-of-molten-magma/

Iceland lies over a rift in continental plates and this provides the nation with access to vast amounts geothermal energy which it is seeking to exploit for the benefit of its people.

The Iceland Deep Drilling Project has built a drilling rig named Thor in the southwest of the country, with the goal of reaching directly in to magma layers 3 miles below the earth’s surface.

IDDP hopes that in drilling into magma they will find reservoirs of naturally occurring supercritical steam that can be used to drive turbines to generate electricity with much greater efficiency than conventional geothermal wells.

You have to admire the Icelandic efforts to exploit their rather unique geographical features for energy production. The country is located just below the Artic circle, yet Icelanders are able to grow produce such as tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers year-round in greenhouses from geothermal heat.

If we finally see commercial LENR, I expect that it would not be long before similar projects in the colder and more inhospitable parts of the world using LENR, rather than geothermal as a source of heat.