CASE STUDY:

THE FLÚDAORKA POWER PLANT

A new model for distributed geothermal heat power generation

APPLICATION

GEOTHERMAL
LOCATION

ICELAND

OUR PARTNER

Varmaorka is an Icelandic project developer that focuses on harnessing geothermal resources in areas where heat temperatures are approximately 100°C. Varmaorka develops, finances, constructs and operates small scale geothermal facilities in Iceland.

THE OPPORTUNITY

Flúðir might be best known for it’s natural hot spring the Secret Lagoon, the more subdued little sister of the popular Blue Lagoon, but this village of nearly 400 inhabitants is also the source of one third of the vegetables on Iceland, and home to the largest mushroom farm. And as you can imagine, keeping greenhouses operational during the long, dark winter months requires a lot of power.

The Flúdaorka Power Plant is located just outside Flúdir in southeast Iceland. The area is rich in geothermal heat, mainly used for district heating and green houses. There was an existing well, not in operation, when the planning of the power plant was initialized.

OUR SOLUTION

The power plant is compact in size consisting of a well pump, four Climeon HP units, a cooling circuit with wet cooling towers and a transformer station (see overview of the power plant shown in Figure 1).

The construction of the power plant began in May 2018 and commissioning was finished in March 2019. While this was record timing in Iceland, we've collected intelligence throughout the process in order to significantly decrease this time for future installations in Iceland through our planned expansion with Varmaorka.

Site automation was included in Climeon’s scope of supply. By adjusting the cooling towers and the HP 150 operation points it gives us the opportunity to optimize the site net power output. This optimization is ongoing and we are continuously developing the automation software to monitor performance and maximize power output.

CASE OVERVIEW

POWER PLANT NAME: The Flúdaorka Power Plant
LOCATION: Flúdir, Iceland
STATUS: In operation since April 2019
APPLICATION: Geothermal
CUSTOMER/END USER: HS Orka
MODEL: Climeon HP 150
PLANT SIZE: 600 kW
WATER TEMPERATURE IN/OUT: HW in 116 C HW out 65 C
COOLING AGENT: Wet cooling towers
GENERATOR VOLTAGE: 400 V

Figure 1. Overview of Flúdaorka Power Plant

Halldóra Hjörleifsdóttir

Mayor of Hrunamannahreppur Municipality

"The power plant gives us independence. We can sustainably produce all the energy for the community, which makes it safer to live here. Companies can grow and prosper, and new companies are emerging with an increasing number of opportunities based on hot water utilization."

Ingvar Garðarsson

Chairman of the Board of Varmaorka

"It has outperformed our expectations!"

Kjartan Rolf Árnason

RARIK (Iceland State Electricity)

“When new electricity users arrive, it places demands on our power distribution system, which is not designed to accommodate a lot of power producers. Location really matters, along with a strong connecting port. That’s what makes the new power plant at Flúðir so great. It’s expected to reduce losses for our power distribution system, and that will lower costs for everyone.”