Nature’s Power

Beneath this dome in Iceland is a drill hole for harnessing geothermal water and hot steam to create electricity. This is a powerful source of renewable energy which can be used in place of fossil fuels to really make a difference for the future of our planet.

In the sky above is the Aurora Borealis, an atmospheric phenomenon caused by solar winds hitting the Earth. Some scientists have proposed harnessing the immense power of solar winds as an alternative energy source!

I’ve had this image in mind for quite a while now and jumped at the opportunity to capture it on a night when the disturbance of the Earth’s magnetic field by solar wind reached a KP-index of 7. While the process itself was made more difficult by extremely strong gusts that almost froze my contact lenses to my eyeballs, the result was close to what I had visualised… including the powerlines stretching into the distance in the background.

Keeping the camera and tripod steady was a battle, as I found myself being blown over by the wind on more than one occasion. Thankfully, the sky was ablaze with the Northern Lights, bathing the surrounding landscape and the drill hole dome in a soft luminous glow. We found ourselves standing beneath several explosive coronas that rained down over our heads.

"This is a powerful source of renewable energy which can be used in place of fossil fuels to really make a difference for the future of our planet."

Geothermal power facilities currently generate around 25-30% of the total electricity used in Iceland.¹ This geothermal electricity is used to power greenhouses where fresh vegetables are grown, for fish farming and other forms of industry. Hot geothermal water is also used to heat homes all around the country.²

If that’s not already impressive, around 99% of Iceland’s electricity is produced from renewable sources.³ For this reason, I am excited to add this image to my ongoing ‘Geothermal Iceland’ project, which aims to document the volcanic landscape which I now call home.

In terms of the technical aspects of this shot, it’s a single image composed such that the Aurora would appear to be moving into the top of the dome, through a tiny vertical spout where you can see a little plume of steam exiting and blowing towards the right. I set a 2-second delay to allow for any camera shake to settle after pressing the shutter release button, though I also had to anchor the tripod down with one hand firmly held around its neck, due to the risk of it blowing away with the wind. To further reduce the impact of camera shake, I used a higher ISO for a shorter exposure time. While it may seem like there is a lot of noise on the dome, what you see is largely the texture of the building material itself.

Now that we have the boring technical aspects out of the way, let’s make a change together to tackle this climate crisis. Lobby your local government to invest in renewable energy sources!

Location: Iceland

Equipment: Canon 5DS R, Sigma 14mm f/1.8 DG HSM Art, Gitzo GT2531LVL Levelling Carbon Tripod with Acratech GPSS Ballhead.

Settings: 13.0 sec, f/2.2, ISO 2000.