Hawaii Pays 41¢ a Kilowatt-Hour. Iceland Heats With Its Volcano

In Reykjavík most homes are heated by the same heat that feeds Iceland's volcanoes. Hawaii sits on a hot spot too, and it pays more for electricity than any other state, mostly from oil that arrives by ship. Both islands have even drilled straight into magma by accident. I assumed the answer would be geology. I was about half right. This film goes through the rock under both islands, how Reykjavík went from washing laundry in hot springs to heating a whole country, and what happened to the one geothermal plant Hawaii did build. Which state are you in, and what do you pay for a kilowatt-hour? Tell me in the comments. If you're in Hawaii, I'd especially like to know what your bill looks like now. Chapters 0:00 A hot shower and a power bill 1:28 The same machine underneath 3:54 Heat, water and broken rock 7:27 Iceland, one pipe at a time 15:09 Hawaii and the plant on the volcano 22:52 Where it breaks 27:38 So whose luck was it? Sources for the numbers: Orkustofnun, National Energy Authority of Iceland (district heating, electricity); U.S. Energy Information Administration (Hawaii prices, generation mix, average bills); Reykjavík Energy (history of district heating); USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (Kīlauea 2018, Puna well 2005); Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources (Puna Geothermal Venture output); Hawaii DCCA; Eurostat / Statistics Iceland (household prices). Map data: Natural Earth. Plate boundaries: P. Bird (2003), PB2002. Footage and photos: Pexels, Pixabay, NASA, U.S. Geological Survey, Wikimedia Commons, Flickr. A few household scenes are AI-generated illustrations. Creative Commons images (creativecommons.org/licenses) were cropped, colour-adjusted and animated. Photographers: Quintin Soloviev (CC BY 4.0); Axel Kristinsson from Reykjavík, Iceland (CC BY 2.0); Alan Light (CC BY 2.0); Pierre Markuse (CC BY 2.0); big-ashb (CC BY 2.0); Manticorp (CC BY 4.0); Bill Morson (CC BY 2.0); G. Edward Johnson (CC BY 4.0); sikeri from Silver Spring, MD, USA (CC BY 2.0); Shiny Things (CC BY 2.0); Hansueli Krapf (CC BY 2.5); Ashley98lee (CC BY 4.0); Gerardo Lazzari from São Paulo, Brasil (CC BY 2.0); DVIDSHUB (CC BY 2.0); Jakub Hałun (CC BY 4.0); Robert Linsdell from St. Andrews, Canada (CC BY 2.0); Eric Tessmer (CC BY 2.0); r h (CC BY 2.0); Anthony Quintano from Mount Laurel, United States (CC BY 2.0); Gerd Eichmann (CC BY 4.0); Jeep Marshall (CC BY 3.0); James St. John (CC BY 2.0); Forest and Kim Starr (CC BY 3.0); Mathieu Neville (CC BY 4.0); Sigurður Ólafsson (CC BY 2.5); Oliver Dodd (oliver.dodd on Flickr) (CC BY 2.0); Eric Tessmer (CC BY 3.0); Solitary Backpacker (CC BY 3.0); Arian Zwegers (CC BY 2.0); scott1346 from Mechanicsville, MD, USA (CC BY 2.0); Chmee2 / Valtameri (CC BY 3.0); Pierre-Selim Huard (CC BY 4.0); futureatlas.com (CC BY 2.0); Luc Van Braekel from Waregem, Belgium (CC BY 2.0); The National Guard Lt. Col. Wayde Minami/State of Hawaii, Department of Defense, Public Affairs Office (CC BY 2.0); Pierre Markuse from Hamm, Germany (CC BY 2.0); Phil Venditti (CC BY 2.0); Herb Neufeld (CC BY 2.0); Jason Jacobs from Honolulu, USA (CC BY 2.0); Tony Webster (CC BY 2.0); Willy Pragher / Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, Staatsarchiv Freiburg W 134 Nr. 107037c (CC BY 4.0); Prayitno / Thank you for (12 millions +) view (CC BY 2.0); exfordy (CC BY 2.0); NASA Goddard Photo and Video (CC BY 2.0); geofiz (CC BY 2.0); WasifMalik (CC BY 2.0); eye of einstein (CC BY 2.0); In Memoriam: PhillipC (CC BY 2.0); Pete Gonçalves (CC BY 2.0); learning_machine (CC BY 2.0); ThinkGeoEnergy (CC BY 2.0); WorldIslandInfo.com (CC BY 2.0); Gordon Leggett (CC BY 4.0); Giuseppe Milo (www.pixael.com) (CC BY 2.0); Dimitry B (CC BY 2.0). Music: YouTube Audio Library (The Grey Room / Density & Time, Simon Herody). #Iceland #Hawaii #Geothermal