Pushing development of up to 30 MW of localised geothermal power generation in Iceland
Ceremony on first Climeon unit's arrival in Iceland (source: Facebook/ Climeon)
Alexander Richter
7 Aug 2018
With small heatpower generation units, Swedish Climeon is seeing a great opportunity for localised geothermal power generation for land owners with lower temperature geothermal resources on their properties.
Icelandic company Varmaorka together with Swedish supplier of heat power generation units has been in the news on ambitious development plants of small power plants distributed across Iceland.
According to the company, land owners with access to hot water in Iceland could actually derive income from operating small power generation units. As announced by Climeon, the company recently opened an office in Iceland to support the further expansion and sales of their units that can produce electricity from low-heat geothermal resources. The first employee to service units will be hired this autumn.
In an interview with Icelandic newspaper Morgunbladid, Thomas Öström, CEO of Climeon, says that Varmaorka, an Icelandic company and partner of Climeon, has ordered 197 units at a value of EUR 65 million ($76 million/ ISK 8 bn). Four of those units have now been handed over and currently being installed at a site called Flúðir in Iceland.
Each of the units has an installed capacity of 150 kW, which makes a total capacity of 29.6 MW for the set up of 197 stations around Iceland.
Öström says that land-owners with hot water on their properties should explore the opportunity of utilising it for power generation. To explore the possible income from electricity generation, it is sufficient to know how much water is at hand and how hot it is.
Climeon has developed its technology utilising so called waste heat, e.g. from industrial applications and ships, with the natural step having though been to go to a geothermal market such as Iceland. The company has also opened an office in Japan with similar opportunities and market strategy.
The approach in Iceland is that land owners host the units on their properties gaining rental income, while also being able to use electricity themselves or sell it into the national grid. Thereby everybody profits, last but not least also the environment as clean energy is produced in an environmental and sustainable fashion.
With additional energy demand in Iceland, the units of Climeon provide opportunities across the country. The units are about 2 qm in size and it is possible to set up several units on one site as a package, depending on the demand on site.
Current plans by Varmaorka are to set up 17-18 small units that will produce electricity around the clock.
With around 70 employees, Climeon is listed on the Nasdaq First North Stock Market with around 10,000 shareholders. The current order book of the company lies at EUR 80 million, showing the importance of the Icelandic market based on the orders.
The company has opened offices in Iceland, Japan and is also situated in Germany and Canada.
Source: Morgunbladid (paper) in translation
