[en] The world primary energy consumption is about 400 EJ/year, mostly provided by fossil fuels (80%), The renewables collectively provide 14% of the primary energy, in the form of traditional biomass (10%), large (>10 MW) hydropower stations (2%), and the ''new renewables''(2%). Nuclear energy provides 6%. The World Energy Council expects the world primary energy consumption to have grown by 50-275% in 2050, depending on different scenarios. The renewable energy sources are expected to provide 20-40% of the primary energy in 2050 and 30-80% in 2100. The technical potential of the renewables is estimated at 7600 EJ/year, and thus certainly sufficiently large to meet future world energy requirements. Of the total electricity production from renewables of 2826 TWh in 1998, 92% came from hydropower, 5.5% from biomass, 1.6% from geothermal and 0.6% from wind. Solar electricity contributed 0.05% and tidal 0.02%. The electricity cost is 2-10 UScents/kWh for geothermal and hydro, 5-13 UScents/kWh for wind, 5-15 UScents/kWh for biomass, 25-125 UScents/kWh for solar photovoltaic and 12-18 UScents/kWh for solar thermal electricity. Biomass constitutes 93% of the total direct heat production from renewables, geothermal 5%, and solar heating 2%. Heat production from renewables is commercially competitive with conventional energy sources. Direct heat from biomass costs 1-5 UScents/kWh, geothermal 0.5-5 UScents/kWh, and solar heating 3-20 UScents/kWh. (author)

[en] The lava pile penetrated by the Iceland Research Drilling Project (IRDP) hole formed in an axial rift zone that remained active for at least the last 13 m.y. The stratigraphic sequence is formed of subaerial volcanics, and it is likely that volcanism was subaerial for several million years or even tens of millions of years prior to the formation of the IRDP sequence. The volcanics in eastern Iceland are tholeiitic, like all Tertiary sequences investigated in Iceland to date, and the lava extrusion rates in eastern Iceland are reported to be similar to those of Tertiary in northern and western Iceland, respectively. The IRDP hole was sited in a dyke swarm extending from the Breiddalur central volcano in the south. The IRDP hole was sited in a regional thermal anomaly with a gradient of about 80₀C/km that was found by a series of 100-m thermal gradient wells in eastern Iceland. Aquifiers of 48₀C were encountered at about 600-m depth, which the thermal gradient lowered considerably. This suggests that the regional thermal anomaly is caused by the flow of warm water at relatively shallow depths

[en] This paper reports on the Geothermal Training Program of the United Nations University which has been operated in Iceland since 1979. A six months course is operated annually for professionals from the developing countries. Specialized training is offered in geological exploration, borehole geology, geophysical exploration, borehole geophysics, reservoir engineering, chemistry of thermal fluids, geothermal utilization, and drilling technology. During 1979-1989, 82 scientists and engineers from 17 countries completed the course, and 11 trainees from 7 countries are expected to complete in October 1990 and receive the UNU Certificate. About 70% of those trained during 1979-1989 are actively working in geothermal in their home countries, and about 20% are working in related fields. Participants normally receive scholarships which are financed by the Government of Iceland and the United Nations University, and in some cases by the UNDP