Old borehole in Bjarnaflag

The Bjarnarflag Geothermal Station (Icelandic: Bjarnarflagsvirkjun) is the smallest geothermal station operated by Landsvirkjun, the Icelandic national power company. It is located in the north of Iceland near Námafjall Mountain in the geothermal area of Mývatn. It lies just a few kilometres from the Ring road (Route 1), around 100 km from Akureyri, and approximately 400 km from the capital city of Reykjavík. It was officially launched on the 5th of March 1969.

With more than 40 year of operations, Bjarnarflag is one of the oldest geothermal stations in Iceland and with this kind of technology it is the first of its kind in the world. Bjarnarflag is operated by Krafla, the largest geothermal power station in North Iceland. The Krafla power station is located 10 km from Bjarnarflag and is the second oldest geothermal station in Iceland. The success of Bjarnarflag encouraged other geothermal project managers to undertake the construction of even larger power plants in this geothermal field, such as the Krafla, Svartsengi and Nesjavellir power plants. In 2001, these power stations delivered more than 200 MW, about 20% of the total capacity. Bjarnarflag is able to produce 18 GWh annually with its installed capacity of 3 MW (1 x 3 MW, 1 steam power unit).
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