Landsvirkjun, the national power company of Iceland and Sweden-headed heat-to-power technology provider Climeon AB, have announced that the companies have signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) to cooperate and evaluate a solution combining mineral extraction with Climeon’s technology for electricity production to increase geothermal power output.
Landsvirkjun is the largest energy company in Iceland and is owned by the Icelandic state. The company operates an installed capacity of 2.1 GW in hydro and geothermal power plants, making them one of Europe’s largest producers of renewable energy.
In the Letter of Intent, Landsvirkjun and Climeon have agreed to co-operate in investigating and evaluating extracting minerals such as silica from geothermal brine using Geo40’s technology. This would make producing electricity from the high enthalpy fluid more feasible using technology such as Climeon’s.
Landsvirkjun is one of the most well-renowned companies in the geothermal industry and we are very proud to be cooperating with them. With this cooperation, we want to show that combining high and low-temperature geothermal power production with mineral extraction is technically and commercially viable, said Thomas Öström, CEO of Climeon.
Extract silica from brine for increased heat usage
More than half of the world’s geothermal power plants produce extra heat in Climeon’s temperature range that is currently not utilized for power production.
To be able to fully utilize this waste heat, Climeon entered a partnership with the New Zealand company Geo40 that has developed a technology for extracting minerals such as silica from the brine.
By removing the silica from the brine, Climeon can utilize the waste heat from the high-temperature geothermal power plants for power production, increasing the total power output.
A solution combining these two technologies can be added to large scale geothermal power plants like the ones Landsvirkjun operates in Iceland.
The possibility of silica extraction is a groundbreaking proposal and will pave the path for additional power production. Geothermal electricity is truly green. However, companies such as Climeon show that there is always room for improvement. We are happy to have signed a Letter of Intent with Climeon to evaluate the opportunities going forward, said Bjarni Pálsson, Executive Director of Geothermal and Wind at Landsvirkjun.
