Progress Report on the Iceland Deep Drilling Project (IDDP)

Abstract

The Iceland Deep Drilling Project (IDDP) is a project of “Deep Vision”, a consortium of the government and the three leading energy companies in Iceland. It aims to improve the economics of geothermal energy production by exploring for supercritical hydrothermal fluids as a possible energy source. This will require drilling to depths of 4 to 5 km in order to reach temperatures of 400°C–600°C. From the outset, Deep Vision, recognizing that a broad scale of studies would be necessary in order to explore the little understood supercritical environment, welcomed the inclusion of basic scientific studies in the IDDP and invited participation from the international scientific community, to the mutual advantage of both industrial and scientific participants (Fridleifsson and Albertsson, 2000).

Keywords

• Iceland Deep Drilling Project