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World’s First Magma‐EGS system created
The January issue of the international journal GEOTHERMICS is dedicated to Icelandic Deep
Drilling Project (see also at www.iddp.is ). It contains 15 papers, most of which are written by
Icelandic scientists and engineers, and mostly deals with the borehole IDDP‐1, the first deep
IDDP hole in Iceland. It was drilled at Krafla in 2008 and 2009, and as is well known, it ended in
a molten magma at 2100 m depth, with a temperature of 900‐1000 °C.
Drilling into magma is a very rare occurrence elsewhere in the world. Instead of inserting a
concrete plug in the bottom of the hole, as was done in a similar situation in Hawaii, the IDDP,
in cooperation with the National Power Company, the owner of the hole, decided to investigate
the hole further and bear part of the substantial capital cost involved. For instance, the hole
was lined with a steel casing (sacrificial casing), which was cemented most of the way down but
kept open (perforated) in the bottom section closest to the magma. Then the hole was allowed
to heat slowly and eventually allowed to flow superheated steam for the next two years until
July 2012. Throughout that time various investigations at utilizing this resource were carried out
that are described in the articles in Geothermics. The success of this drilling and research is
amazing to say the least, and could in the near future lead to a revolution in energy efficiency in
high‐temperature geothermal areas of the world. Read more or listen to the video below.