Hellisheidi Geothermal Power Plant Hengill Iceland

The Hellisheidi geothermal power plant in Iceland is one of the worlds ten biggest geothermal power plants It is a flash steam combined heat and power CHP plant that generates 303MW of electricity and 400MW of thermal energy The plant is located at Hengill approximately 11km away from the existing Nesjavellir geothermal power station in southwest Iceland The plant was commissioned in five phases from 2006 to 2011 and is owned and operated by Orkuveita Reykjavkur The power output of the plant is primarily supplied to the aluminium refineries in the capital city of Reykjavik which is located 20km west of Hellisheidi A major carbon capture and storage CCS project named Orca began operating at the Hellisheidi geothermal power plant site in September 2021 Claimed to be the worlds biggest direct air CCS plant Orca utilises geothermal energy generated by the Hellisheidi facility to perform CCS operations Orkuveita Reykjavikur decided to build the geothermal power plant in 2002 based on the conclusions of research drilling that was completed in 2001 The first phase of the project included installation of two highpressure 45MW turbines and commenced production in 2006 A lowpressure steam turbine of 33MW capacity was added to the plant in 2007 as part of the second phase of development The third phase commissioned in 2008 involved the installation of two more highpressure turbines of 45MW capacity each Steam from Skarsmrarfjall Mountain is used for the power generation of the third phase The geothermal plant started producing hot water in its fourth phase of development which was completed in 2010 A hot water main pipeline for district heating purposes was also installed in this phase The fifth and final stage of development comprised the installation of two 45MW turbines in 2011 The Hellisheidi geothermal power plant was developed in an area of 13000m 1399308ft near Mount Hengill in the Hengill geothermal area one of the largest hightemperature geothermal fields in Iceland which covers an area of 110km Power is generated using a combination of six highpressure and one lowpressure steam turbines Hot fluid is extracted through 30 wells at a depth of 2000m 656168ft to 3000m 984252ft The extracted fluid passes through steam and mist separators The separated hot steam propels the turbines for electricity generation The plant uses about 500kgs of geothermal steam at 180C to produce electricity The electrical system of each generating unit of the power station comprises a 50MVA generator 50MVA220kV stepup transformer and 1111 kV transformer for connection to the 11kV station service system The power generated from the plant is transmitted to a national grid substation located 1km away from the power plant Fresh groundwater is heated to 50C with the steam from the turbines The water is heated again by heat exchange up to 83C The reheated water is pumped to a 950m capacity hot water storage tank at the plant site through a 1mwide and 360mlong pipe The hot water is further supplied to the city of Reykjavk through a 195kmlong preinsulated underground pipeline with a diameter of 09m to 1m Construction of the Hellisheidi hot water main pipeline started in 2008 The pipeline was brought into service towards the end of 2010 and has a maximum flow rate of 2250ls The Hellisheidi power plant design and construction contract was awarded to Mannvit Engineering Verks Engineering was awarded the design and construction contract for the Hellisheidi hot water main pipeline Mitsubishi supplied six 45MW highpressure steam turbines and Toshiba provided one 33MW lowpressure steam turbine for the power plant The counterflow wet cooling system used at the power plant was supplied by SPX Cooling Technologies Siemens supplied a control and protection system for the power plant The Orca CCS facility located adjacent to the Hellisheidi geothermal power plant captures carbon dioxide CO directly from the air and stores it permanently as rocks in the earths crust The Orca carbon capture plant was developed and is operated by Climeworks a direct air CO capture technology company based in Switzerland Icelandic company Carbfix is responsible for mixing the aircaptured CO with water and pumping it deep underground for natural mineralisation and permanent storage in the form of rocks Construction works on the Orca project started in May 2020 and the CCS facility commenced operations in September 2021 The carbon capture plant uses a modular system and is made up of eight stackable CO collector units each of which can capture 500t of CO a year Get industry leading news data and analysis delivered to your inbox

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