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Hendry to consider tapping Iceland's geothermal source
 Britain's Energy Minister Charles Hendry is heading to Iceland to look at thermal energy which could help replace the UK's dwindling North Sea oil and gas resources.
Hendry is heading to Rekjavik in May to look at how thermal power could be harnessed with high-voltage electrical cables stretching across the northern Atlantic Ocean to bring low carbon power to the UK.
According to the Guardian newspaper the Energy Minister is due to head to Iceland next month to see how geothermal power works there and to consider its use for Britain.
Already Hendry has met with Iceland's national grid to discuss the plan, the newspaper reports. “We are in active discussions with the Icelandic government and they are very keen,” Hendry told the newspaper.
And he sounds certain about the likelihood of the project going ahead: “We will be dependent on imported energy,” the Minister says, and he said the cables “...are an absolutely critical part of energy security and for low carbon energy.”
Already the UK is in discussions with Norway and other North Sea nations about development a North Sea super-grid of national electrical inter-connectors, but bringing Iceland into the same scheme by extending the network still further could provide greater flexibility for the UK's future energy needs which cannot be met by North Sea oil and gas, coal and nuclear alone.
If the scheme were to go ahead, the high-voltage cables stretching from Iceland to the UK would have to be between 1,000 to 1,500 kilometres (625 – 940 miles) long, making them by far the longest power cables in the world.
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