![]() It’s a technique that’s persevered at spots like Laugarvatn Fontana, which hosts tours of its geothermal bakery, where loaves of rye bread, known as hverabrauð, or hot spring bread, are baked for 24-hour periods beneath volcanic black sand. But instead we continued on to Laugarvatn Fontana, a geothermal spa facility situated along the lakefront in Laugarvatn – where we stopped at the café and discovered that geothermal energy could figure into a menu, too.īaking with the earth’s natural heat was one of the first ways Icelanders began harnessing the geothermal power beneath their feet. I could have kept my family’s power plant tour going at several other sites, each of which debuted their own visitors centres in the 2010s: at the Krafla geothermal power station in northern Iceland, or the Kárahnjúkar hydropower plant in the eastern highlands, or even the Ljósafoss hydropower station, set along the River Sog, less than 30 miles from Hellisheiði. ![]() Like me, they’ll peer through the interior windows onto the power plant’s inner mechanisms, where massive turbines roar and churn, and view the display of Icelandic rocks and minerals, some of which were until recently particles of carbon dioxide trapped in the atmosphere. On the day I visit, the staff at Hellisheiði are preparing for a delegation of Baltic states’ presidents to arrive. Academics, scientists, business leaders, and policy-makers from around the globe have taken notice, too. The prediction proved accurate: Before the pandemic, the plant pulled in 100,000 visitors each year, a figure to which it is slowly returning. That’s because there was an expectation, according to exhibition manager Laufey Guomundsdottir, that “there would be great interest in being able to see and visit the power plant” from curious visitors, who’d want to “feel and see the power of Mother Nature.” When the plant debuted the exhibit in 2007, it was the first geothermal plant in the world to feature such a display, she says. ![]() You can learn all about this process from the multimedia and interactive installations at the plant’s Geothermal Exhibition, part of the visitor centre that was integrated into its initial design. At a time when climate and energy-supply crises have driven up the cost of everything from groceries to airfare, and nations around the globe are clamouring for innovative clean-energy solutions to avert environmental disaster, it’s hard for visitors not to perk up over Iceland’s apparent victory over fossil fuel dependency.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |