|
Chronological List of District Heating
Systems in the United States |
The
References
1937 "To
Rid City of Smoke," The Journal, September 14, 1937, Page 5.
1938 "Central Heating for Capital of Iceland," Evening Herald, December 13, 1938, Page 7.
1938 "Hot Springs on Tap," Saturday Herald, January 29, 1938, Page 8
1941 "The Reykjavik Hot Water Supply System," The Heating and Ventilating Engineer 15(171):94-96 (1941)
1941 "Sleepy
Little Iceland Chafes at Military Bustle," The Saginaw News,
October 30, 1941, Page 4.
"A treeless, drab city of concrete and corrugated iron buildings,
Reykjavik suddenly became an international host at an embarrassing moment,
since many of its streets were torn up for the installation of pipes to
bring water from nearby hot springs a citywide steam heating project. The
pipes were a casualty of war, however, and never left the dock in Denmark.
The streets were filled up in the best manner possible, but the incessant
pounding of large British and American army trucks—augmented by heavy
rains—has made them muddy washboards."
1944 "It's A Pipe," New York Daily News, April 16, 1944, Page 31.
1944 "Keeping Warm in Iceland," The Duluth News Tribune, April 16, 1944, Page 33.
1944 "Hot Springs in Iceland," The Journal of the Institution of Heating and Ventilating Engineers 12:10 (May-June 1944)
1944 "Hot Water for Reykjavik Supplied from Ten Miles Off," The Illustrated London News, July 15, 1944, Page 28.
1944 Bulletin of the
National District Heating Association 30(1):18 (October 1944)
The insulated pipe line which carried 65 gallons of water per second from
the hot springs 10 miles away to Reykjavik, capital of Iceland, to heat
that city, supplied the houses with water which is between 203 and 212 F
and loses only 9F enroute, according to information in the Journal of the
British Institution of Heating and Ventilating Engineers for May and June.
1945 The
Butte Daily Post, January 17, 1945, Page 7.
"Water pumped from hot springs nearly nine miles away saved 13,000 tons of
coal and heating 2,436 buildings in Reykjavik, Iceland, in the last year.
1945 "Volcanic
Heat for Reykjavik," The Kansas City Star, August 28, 1945,
Page 14 | Part
2 |
Howard Whitman in This Week magazine.
REYKJAVIK, an immaculate little doll-house town of 46,000, capital of the
Republic of Iceland, has just finished a project known as Hitaveita,
freely translated as "Turn on the heat."
You see, Iceland, though cold and barren and topped with 5,000 square
miles of glacier, is situated on one of nature's hot seats. Below its
chill surface are bubbling, steaming volcanic springs. And this winter,
when the mercury plummets to five degrees, the gurgling volcanic waters
will be pumped right into the houses of Reykjavik.
Helgi Sigurdssen, the quiet, square-jawed director of Hitaveita, says the
story goes back to 1920. A scholar suggested to the Icelandic Engineering
society that some day the volcanic springs might be harnessed. His
suggestion was forgotten until the winter of 1926-27 when another savant
lectured on the subject. This time the body took action.
A year later engineers began drilling through the volcanic crust of
Reykir, eleven miles from Reykjavik. They brought some of the
190-degree subterranean water to the surface and used it to heat hothouses
for the growing of flowers, fruits and vegetables.
Then Helgi Sigurdsson and the city fathers of Reykjavik made blueprints
for Hitaveita, the turn-on-the-heat project. By 1940 orders for pipes,
pumps and tanks had been placed in Copenhagen, Iceland then being under
the aegis of the Danish king.
Two boats were loaded in Danish ports. The first reached Reykjavik March,
1940. The second was about to leave Denmark in April when the Nazis
arrived and confiscated everything.
In 1941, Sigurdsson tried to place orders for new materials in England.
England, blitzed and bleeding, said she was too busy taking the heat off
London without worrying about turning it on in Reykjavik. So in 1942 an
Icelandic commission came to the United States.
Since we had quietly moved our army into Iceland and were using it as a
vital base in the Battle of the Atlantic, we couldn't very well send
Sigurdsson home empty So United States firms made the equipment and the
National City bank of New York put up the necessary credits.
The preliminary installations were completed on December 1, 1943, and the
house of Einar Jonsson, noted Icelandic sculptor, was the first to feel
the warmth of Hades's water. More houses were hooked up in rapid
succession. Recently Bjarn Benediktsson, mayor of Reykjavik, said that
Hitaveita would be ready this winter to warm the homes of 35,000
Icelanders, three-fourth of the population of Reykjavik.
In two square miles out at Reykir, Sigurdsson has drilled thirty wells
down to the volcanic waters. Water is pumped into four storage tanks at
the rate of sixty-six gallons A second.
From the tanks it flows by gravity through heavily insulated pipes into
the city of Reykjavik. Small branch lines feed it into the homes, where it
is circulated through radiators. After it has passed through the
radiator system, thrifty Icelanders reuse it for bathing, washing clothes,
heating and watering their hothouses.
Thus, Hitaveita means that instead of importing 30,000 tons of coal a year
at a cost of nearly 1 million dollars, the city of Reykjavik will be able
to heat itself at an annual cost of $200,000.
Reykjavik feels that while many world capitals are tremendous producers of
hot air, there is also much to be said the production of hot water.
1948 "They're Always in Hot Water," The Province, August 17, 1948, Page 4.
1950 "Nature Solves the Hot-Water Problem in Iceland: Reykjavik's Constant Supply," The Illustrated London News, September 9, 1950, Page 408.
1951 "Two of the World's Far Northern Cities," The Sphere, October 14, 1951, Page 57.
1971 "Geothermal
energy and its use for district heating in Iceland," by G. H.
Kristinsson and K. O. Jonsson, Journal of the Institution of Heating
and Ventilating Engineers, 39:103-111 (August 1971)
Authors are respectively Chief Engineer and Manager of the Reykjavik
district heating service. Geothermal activity and its widespread
effectiveness in Iceland are discussed and reference is made to the two
main types of geothermal sources, those above 200°C and others less than
200°C. The former are in the volcanic belt and an extension of the
Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The latter are widespread. Water from both areas is
alkaline, 8.0 to 9.5 pH and so pure that it is potable.
Total heat output is 47,000 MW of which the useful heat from surface
springs is 900 MW. Seven district heating schemes are described with
emphasis on the largest at Reykjavik which uses borehole hot water
supplies of 250 MW capacity. 120,000 m2 of greenhouses are also district
heated.
The scheme was started in 1928. The discussion (Summer Conference of the
IHVE in Iceland) adds to the unique value of this paper. The paper is also
published in The Steam & Heating Engineer, October 1971.
2000 District Heating in Reykjavik - 70 Years Experience, World Geothermal Conference
2001 Geothermal Energy in Iceland
2004 "Geothermal District Heating in Reykjavik, Iceland," International Geothermal Days
2013 The History of Hot Water, Reykjavik Energy
2015 Geothermal
District Heating: The Icelandic Experience, DOE
Geothermal Workshop August 17, 2015
Pages 23-26: Pictures of the 1943 piping installation
The first Reykir piping main 1943. 14 km, 2 x 14 in seamless steel pipes
from USA
2020 Iceland Overview- Energy Market and Geothermal Energy
© 2025 Morris A. Pierce