The Reykir Geothermal Area in Fnjóskadalur North-Iceland: District Heating in Rural Iceland
- Key words
- Reykir, Fnjóskadalur, geothermal utilization, resistivity, borehole, temperature gradient, flow test, cultivation, space heating, geological mapping
- Location
- Reykir, Iceland
- Conference
- World Geothermal Congress
- Year
- 2010
- Session
- 34. District Heating and Agriculture
- Language
- English
- Paper number
- 3416
Full text
3633KB, opens in a new tab
Abstract
Utilization of the geothermal resource at Reykir goes back to at least the mid nineteenth century. Runoff from a productive hot-spring with ~90°C hot water was used for washing and attempts to use the water for cultivation date back to at least the 1850’s. Later recreational use of the water increased and since 1950 it has been used locally for space heating.
Systematic research on the field commenced in the 1970’s. Initially it involved surface geophysical measurements, geological mapping and drilling of shallow exploratory wells. A low resistivity anomaly was recorded around the Reykir field and subsequent research was aimed at locating the hot water’s main course of up-flow.
A second period of activity has been ongoing since 2005. Additional wells have been drilled in the area and the production well has been subjected to long term flow-testing. In all 13 boreholes have now been drilled in the area. The field is now utilized for space heating in the Fnjóska¬dalur valley and hot water is piped to the village of Grenivík some 55 km north of the field.
Copyright 2010, International Geothermal Association. Readers who download papers from this site should honour the copyright of the original authors, and may not copy or distribute the work further without the permission of the original publisher.