Russia and Iceland sign geothermal energy deal

[News_Editor]

Russia and Iceland sign geothermal energy deal

2011-10-24 21:09:04 GMT+7 (ICT)

MOSCOW, RUSSIA (BNO NEWS) -- Officials from the governments of Russia and Iceland signed an agreement on Monday morning to produce geothermal energy, local media reported.

The two European countries agreed to design and build geothermal energy-generating facilities in Russia, according to the intergovernmental agreement signed by officials on Monday, RIA Novosti reported.

Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko and Icelandic Minister of Industry, Energy and Tourism Katrin Juliusdottir closed and signed the agreement in which the Russian government intends to create special geothermic energy demand in the 1,250-kilometer (780-mile) Kamchatka Peninsula located in the Russian Far East.

At the peninsula, Minister Shmatko said, officials are also expecting to develop metallurgical facilities using geothermal energy. According to the agreement, Russia would be taking equity stakes in Icelandic companies working in the field of renewable energy and implement joint projects in Kamchatka, which is rich in geothermal resources.

Geothermal energy is clean and sustainable energy made by heat inside the Earth's crust. It comes from radioactive decay of minerals and from solar energy taken in at the surface. Resources of geothermal energy range from the shallow ground to hot water and hot rock found a few miles (kilometers) beneath the Earth's surface, and down even deeper to the extremely high temperatures of molten rock called magma.

The Kamchatka Peninsula currently has three geothermal power generating plants in operation.

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