Þeistareykir geothermal station in operation

Iceland’s newest power plant is the 45 MW Þeistareykjavirkjun in Northeast Iceland. The owner and operator of the plant is the Icelandic national power company Landsvirkjun.

The silicon-metal plant of PCC.

The construction of this first phase of the power plant started in the spring of 2015. Most of the generation will be transmitted to a silicon metal plant of PCC. The PCC silicon plant will utilize a total of 52 MW in the start. According to the power contract with Landsvirkjun, PCC will gradually increase its power demand up to 58 MW. Annual energy delivery is expected to start at 456 GWh and then gradually increase to 508 GWh per annum within the next 4 years (article 3 of the power contract).

As the 45 MW phase of the Þeistareykir plant will only generate 360-370 GWh annually, Landsvirkjun must also deliver power from other power plants to PCC. However, Landsvirkjun is already constructing next phase of Þeistareykir, adding another 45 MW. This second phase of the geothermal plant is scheduled to become operational in next April (2018), making the total capacity 90 MW. At this stage, the additional capacity can only be utilised by power consumers in the Northeastern part of Iceland, as the national transmission grid has several bottlenecks.

Þeistareykir geothermal plant.

This most recent geothermal project is believed to be the most economical of all the upcoming geothermal power projects in Iceland. According to information from Landsvirkjun, the cost of this first 45 MW phase is close to USD 200 millions, which accounts for approximately USD 4.5 millions pr. MW. With a second phase, the total cost for the 90 MW plant is expected to be close to USD 330 millions. Then the cost of each MW will be close to USD 3.7 millions.