Geothermal Reservoir Engineering Experience in Iceland: Paper presented at the Nordic Hydrological Conference (Reykjavik, Iceland, August – 1986)

Geothermal reservoir engineering studies have been carried out in Iceland for years concurrently with the utilization of the various geothermal fields. This has been essential in order to understand the responses of the reservoirs to exploitation. The importance of geothermal energy has grown steadily in the past decades relative to other primary energy resources, providing at present about 40% of the total energy consumed in Iceland. In this article the experience gained from exploiting Icelandic geothermal reservoirs is reviewed. The geological setting of the hydrothermal system is described as well as geophysical exploration methods. Several field examples are presented, demonstrating the effects that exploitation has on the geothermal reservoir's response.