90 MW Addition to Iceland's Hellisheidi Geothermal Power Plant

Posted by Big Gav in geothermal energy, geothermal power, iceland

With the fifth phase of development complete, Iceland's Hellisheidi geothermal power plant is now one of the largest in the world.

On October 1st 2011, Reykjavik’s utility company, Orkuveita Reykjavikur, celebrated the start-up of the 5th phase of the Hellisheidi geothermal combined heat and power plant (CHP), located just outside Reykjavik, Iceland. This fifth phase added an additional 90 MW of power. The plant, which was designed by a group of consulting firms led by Mannvit, is now one of the world’s largest geothermal energy plants, producing 303 MW of power and 133 MW of thermal energy for space heating and hot water.

Mannvit, as the mechanical and overall plant designer, is proud to report on the successful commissioning of the plant’s 5th phase, which added 2 x 45 MWe Mitsubishi turbines. The total cost of the 90 MW, 5th phase was approximately $197 million, or 23.5 billion ISK (Icelandic krona).

1 comments

John Howley says 2:01 PM

This is pretty amazing. To put the size of this geothermal power plant in perspective, GE just announced that it is building the largest solar panel manufacturing plant in the U.S. It will be capable of producing 400 MWs worth of solar panels per year -- less than the size of this one geothermal power plant in Iceland.

John Howley