A SpeechbyThe President of Iceland
Olafur Ragnar Grimssonat theWorld Geothermal CongressBali
26 April 2010Your Excellency, Dr. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, President of the Republic ofIndonesia
Ministers, your Excellencies,
Distinguished delegates,
Ladies and gentlemen,
The fire inside the Earth has recently through the eruption in my country reminded theworld of its enormous power and destructive potential. Generally the power is hidden
under the surface, but every now and then it breaks out, creating a spectacle in gaining
immediate prominence in global media.
The volcano, under the Eyjafjalla Glacier in southern Iceland, thrust magma up throughthe 200-metre-thick ice-cap and consequently enormous clouds of ash moved to Europe,bringing air traffic to a standstill for days in the United Kingdom, France, Germany,Italy, Poland; in all over twenty European countries. Half of the scheduled flights on
US-Europe routes were cancelled; millions of people had their plans dramaticallyaltered and thousands of businesses faced an unexpected challenge.
Suddenly, due to a volcanic eruption in Iceland, most of the world, and particularly
Europe and the United States, were reminded that there are indeed forces inside theEarth that can sweep away crucial foundations of global communication and bring large
and important sections of even the most advanced modern economies to a halt.
The good news, however, for your gathering here today at the World Geothermal
Congress, is that the glacial volcano in Iceland has given the world a uniquedemonstration of geopower which will not be forgotten. Now it is up to this
distinguished assembly of scientists, engineers, experts and policy-makers to explain, toan attentive global audience, how these forces of nature can be harnessed for the benefitof humankind: harnessed to combat climate change and provide clean energy to homes
and industrial regions and thus enhance the prosperity of people in Asia and theAmericas, Oceania, Europe and Africa.
As the second decade of the 21st century opens, we enjoy a great opportunity tohighlight the importance of geothermal production, not merely because of the spectacleof the Icelandic eruption, but above all as a result of endeavours, projects, innovations,
technological breakthroughs and other achievements which in recent years have brought
the geothermal sector to the forefront.
I come from a country where the capital city gained its name, Reykjavik, from the1geothermal steam which took the early settlers by surprise; a phenomenon which wascompletely foreign to the Nordic Vikings who settled on the island more than athousand years ago.
For ten centuries, our only use of geothermal power was for washing clothes andrelaxing by sitting in the warm springs created by natural conditions. Even up to theearly years of my parents’ life, these were the only benefits we derived from ourgeothermal resources.
Then, between the World Wars, and especially in the second half of the 20th century,
new technologies and engineering endeavours enabled Iceland first to replace coal andoil with geothermal space heating, and then to power turbines and ultimately sell
geothermally-generated electricity to aluminium smelters. Thanks also to hydropower,
Iceland thus became the paramount clean-energy country in the world, with all ourelectricity and space heating provided by green energy resources. In addition thegeothermal sector has been the foundation of extensive greenhouse cultivation and fish
farming, of world-famous tourist locations like the Blue Lagoon, of spas and healthierstyles, of the production of cosmetics and snow melting installations in driveways, instreets and urban centres.
The economic benefits derived from geothermal development have been enormous,
helping to transform a country of farmers and fishermen, which the UNDP classified asa developing country down to the 1970s, to one of the most prosperous welfare
economies in the world, despite the recent financial crisis.
Yes, indeed, geothermal energy has helped Iceland to survive the recent banking shock,especially because the cost of heating and electricity for ordinary people, families,
homes and business companies was only a small proportion of what it is in other
European countries. But also because our geothermal resources make Iceland a very
attractive location for industrial investment, and will do so even more in the coming
years: for aluminium smelters, data-storage centres, high-tech industries and otherprofitable enterprises.
The scale of the national savings resulting from geothermal space heating alone isdemonstrated by the fact that every ten years, Iceland saves what amounts to the entire
GNP of one year by not having to import oil and coal to heat the houses.
This has indeed been a revolutionary transformation, not only allowing us to build an
economy with an inherent long-term strength but also to make significant contributions
to the rest of the world. The geothermal sector has become one of the major pillars ofIceland’s global position, of our foreign policy and our diplomatic efforts.
The United Nations University Geothermal Training Programme, founded three decades
ago in Iceland, has strengthened the capabilities of more than 40 developing countries
and we are proud to see so many of our UNU Fellows present at this congress. The
program has also held short courses in Kenya (for African countries), in El Salvador(for Central American countries), in China (for Asian countries) as well as here inIndonesia．

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In recent years, Icelandic power companies and engineering firms have participated ingeothermal projects, for example in China and India, in East Africa and CentralAmerica, in Western and Eastern Europe, in the Middle East, Russia and the UnitedStates.
It has become an important part of my Presidency to promote such cooperation,
especially since the threat of irreversible climate change makes it our moral duty to help
others to move towards a more sustainable future.
The climate crisis constitutes a call for a fundamental energy revolution, acomprehensive transformation from fossil fuel to green energy sources such as
geothermal, solar, wind, hydro-power and others.
In all of these categories, the nations of the South enjoy a richer potential than those of
the North. Thus, a green energy era could be a time of renaissance, a progressive
century for the developing world.
One of the great advantages of geothermal, solar and wind is that the scale ofinvestments can be tailored to the need. The excess capacity and huge initial costs
inherent in big coal and nuclear-power plants are absent from the equation. The tappingof geothermal, wind and solar sources can be adjusted to the needs of a small village, a
few households, a growing town or emerging industrial projects. It can then be scaled
upwards with each stage of successful development.
A few decades ago this important dimension was entirely absent from the formulationof energy strategies, simply because green technologies were still in their infancy. Now,
however, developing countries can base their prosperity on proven practices that can be
tailored to the needs of different regions.
The beauty of geothermal power for economic and social development is that it is notjust an energy resource. It can also be used for greenhouse cultivation and other types of
productive farming to help rural areas to grow products for high-priced markets. It can
provide warm water and clay chemicals for spas and other tourist locations, for urban
and rural recreational and health centres, bringing lifestyle benefits to the local
population. Geothermal fluid is also rich in chemicals needed in pharmaceuticalproduction, and advanced experiments have indicated a possibility of extracting rareminerals from the fluid.
All of this provides developing countries with new openings to use geothermal energy
in formulating successful economic strategies. Also, the recent financial crisis has
shown that a green-energy transformation can serve as a defence against serious
economic damage in turbulent times．
It is encouraging, especially for those of us who have tried for years in meetings withleaders of Congress, Governors and American energy officials to move the UnitedStates in the geothermal direction, to see how, with the new emphasis of the Obama
Administration, the United States is now waking up to its great geothermal potential.

3This is demonstrated, for example, by the Global Geothermal Forum which will takeplace in Washington next month.
Similarly, the European Union is now examining how the geothermal potential of manymember states can help the EU to reach its 2020 target of CO2 reduction.
Thus, as the World Geothermal Congress assembles here in Bali, we are witnessing atruly global transformation. It is therefore of the utmost importance to acknowledge thatthe next 5-15 years could see a fundamental breakthrough for the global geothermal
community, galvanising scientists, engineers, experts, policy-makers and government
leaders to move their countries forward, to a new and more sustainable clean energy
future.
Never before in the history of geothermal power have we faced such a challenge: How
to ensure that the next 5-15 years will indeed become such an era, an epoch orfundamental transformation.
Although in previous years we have seen significant technological progress, I firmly
believe that we are still in the early stages of geothermal know-how and that together
we can aim in the coming years for wide-ranging technological breakthroughs in thefollowing fields:- Deep drilling technology, aimed at tapping supercritical temperatures close to
magma chambers, as illustrated by the international Icelandic Deep Drilling
Project, going down 5-6 kilometres, examining how to harness temperatures of400-600 degrees.
- The examination of the seafloor, of continental shelves, for submarine geothermal
generation, particularly where high-temperature fluids can be found in fracturezones along mid-ocean ridges; examining whether, and if so, how, these could
become a significant part of our energy future.
- Enhanced Geothermal Systems and their contribution to a new energy era.
- The development of smaller turbines, like Kaldara in Iceland has done incooperation with the Indian Hindustan Turbo Machinery, furthering small-scale
geothermal harnessing by adding one container system to another.
- Employing geothermal boreholes in basalt regions for carbon recycling andstorage, as is now being tested in a collaborative venture by Reykjavik Energy anduniversities in the US and Europe.
- Increasing the efficiency of existing geothermal technology, advancing higher
energy recovery, longer field times, well-drilling technologies, casing, data
management and reservoir simulation.
- Promotion all over the world of space-heating systems to replace coal and oil andthus meet a large proportion of the energy demand in both developed and4

developing countries.
- And also air-conditioning and cooling systems for use in warmer countries as
Reykjavik Geothermal is developing in Abu Dhabi, potentially a game changer inthe Middle East and other hot regions.
These and many other developments are fast making the geothermal sector a crucial partof the global energy future. The creation of IRENA, aimed at rallying all nations in thestrife to adopt renewable energy solutions, and the establishment of the REN Allianceindicate that a new vision is now inspiring global plans for action.
The World Geothermal Congress is a significant platform for mapping out such ajourney, for enhancing our cooperation and making sure that the next 5-15 years will
indeed be a breakthrough era.
It is both an honour and a privilege to be with you here today, to learn from yourdialogue and deliberations.
Now, when the world faces the most significant global challenge of our times, history
has placed you at the forefront and thus your endeavours are of the utmost importance．

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