Iceland’s Hellisheiði Power Station, located near Reykjavík, is one of the world’s most technologically advanced geothermal energy plants. The facility taps into Iceland’s volcanic geology, drawing high-pressure steam and hot water from deep underground reservoirs to provide both electricity and heat to thousands of local homes and businesses.

Beyond energy production, the Hellisheiði Power Station also employs innovative carbon capture and storage methods through the CarbFix project. At Hellisheiði, carbon dioxide captured from geothermal emissions is dissolved in water and injected into underground basalt rocks, where it transforms into solid carbonate minerals, permanently locking away the CO₂. Additionally, less than a kilometer north of Hellisheiði, CarbFix’s Orca plant captures CO₂ directly from the air—a groundbreaking approach that could one day help reduce global atmospheric carbon emissions.

“Alongside rapidly reducing emissions, large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) is fundamental to climate scenarios that limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius,” says Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory geologist Joshua Murray. “The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts that about 10-20 gigatons of CO₂ will need to be captured and stored annually by 2100.

Converting CO₂ to carbonate minerals is an appealing method for CCS, says Murray, because those minerals are stable and form naturally over geologic timescales, limiting the risk of future CO₂ leaks or pollution.

At Hellisheiði, Murray notes, “Carbfix has proven that CO₂ injection into basaltic rock is a successful mineralization strategy on the scale of a single power plant, capturing around 12,000 tons annually.”

Employed at a large scale, “the global distribution of basaltic (and similar) rocks could sequester 60,000,000 gigatons of CO₂—so rocks are not the limiting factor.” The biggest challenge will be scaling up CCS, Murray adds, “which will require continued scientific research, political commitment and the integration of multiple technologies—including carbon mineralization approaches like those used by Carbfix. Each of these technologies can benefit, as Carbfix has done, from looking at natural geological and biological processes as inspiration for CCS.”

Iceland generates nearly 100% of its electricity and heating from renewable sources, and its Hellisheiði Power Station is an example of how innovative renewable energy technologies can sustainably integrate with local ecosystems and also benefit nearby communities.

Video: Inside the hidden carbon plant pulling CO2 from thin air (BBC News)