It’s hard to believe that I’m back here in Pittsburgh after the most incredible trip to Iceland. I’m sitting here reflecting on the entire trip and all I can think is how much I want to go back.

A week was certainly not enough to experience all that Iceland has to offer, but it gave an incredible sample of what lies out there. As a mechanical engineering student, seeing how sustainability is paramount in every bit of life in Iceland is inspiring and something that I will be holding close to me in my future.

So let me break it down and talk about what we did the last few days and everything I’ve learned.

On Wednesday night, something magical happened: the northern lights!! The skies were clear and the time was right, I tell you what that was a sight I cannot forget. The pictures fail to do the auroras justice, but hey they’re better than nothing.

We started off Thursday morning driving into Vik. I got my coffee (of course) and then drove over to the Dyrholaey Cliffs, which are, depending on volcanic activity and currents, the southernmost point of Iceland. The waves crashing into the cliffs and the panoramic views here were stunning. I feel like a broken record saying this but Iceland is otherworldly and pictures alone cannot tell the whole story of the view.

Here, something happened. Of course there is the whole “study abroad changed me” cliche, but here it was something that came true. Maybe it was the incredible panoramic views, maybe it was the ocean, maybe it was my little seal Jaeja telling me something. This trip is more than the sustainability, nature, and wonders of Iceland- it’s also about living in the moment and taking in the little things.

After getting our fill of these panoramic views (not really, but it’s all the more reason to come back to Iceland), we hopped back on the bus and headed over to the Hellisheiði Power Station. This is the largest geothermal power generation plant in Iceland, and one of the biggest in the world! Iceland produces roughly 30% of their power through geothermal means, plus it also helps supply a lot of the hot water.

Now when we talk scale, the Hellisheiði does not actually produce a ton of power… Iceland doesn’t need it. But the sustainability and carbon friendliness is where geothermal power takes the cake. Let me break down the process.

First, steam is harvested from the ground and separated out from the liquid water into high and low pressure systems. It then is sent to a steam turbine (pictured below) to turn a generator at 3000rpm. Contrary to many other kinds of steam turbine generators, these are running at rather low pressures (1-7.3 bar as opposed to 50-80 bar)! This adds yet another engineering challenge to this impressive feat.

Now this is like any other power generation system, outputting a high 11000 V that will be sent to the grid and used. But that’s not the end of the story for the heated water or the steam… let’s get even more sustainable!

Heated water is a huge demand from Reykjavik, so after the steam is sent through the turbines, it goes to the thermal plant. Here, the clean hot water is prepared to be sent 25km to Reykjavik, while the impurities (carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide) are dissolved in (slightly hotter) water to be reinjected into the ground. We took a look at one of the reinjection wells on the geothermal field. The process goes on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to give the capital region of Iceland electricity and hot water.

What an incredible power plant, plus it goes to show just how sustainable Iceland is. Afterwards, we headed into Reykjavik for our last two nights.

On Friday, we started off with hopping on the bus to Reykjavik University! It’s an beautiful sprawling campus that consists of… one building! Must be pretty easy to roll out of bed at 8:55 for your 9am class; something that I can’t relate to in Oakland. Anyways, we had some wonderful discussions with faculty and students in the school of energy and toured some great labs.

After the university visit, we headed back to Reykjavik for our last day here. What better way to spend that time than to walk, shop, and eat?! I started off by taking a walk to Hallgrimskirkja- the massive church! While it was closed on the inside, we made the best of this sunny day in Reykjavik and got some great pictures.

After getting my fill of the shops and buying some good gifts, it was time to head to our farewell dinner. We all got some delicious Ling and a little cake for dessert! But more importantly, here we bid farewell to our incredible guide Ólöf. If you ask me what made this trip so special, it was Ólöf. All of the knowledge and stories she has about Iceland was truly wonderful. Previously, I thought Iceland was a country filled with nature and not a whole lot else, but she changed my mind about that. Iceland is filled with nature, but it also has history, folklore, music, and so much else for such a small country. Iceland is an incredible and otherworldly place.

Saturday started with some shopping, eating, and walking around with Jaeja to soak in the final views of Reykjavik. He was pretty excited to leave and come see Pittsburgh, but I wasn’t too sure. I still cannot put to words just how incredible Iceland is. I know I’ll be back there someday to try and make a dent in the list of things I still want to do.

Saturday afternoon we did probably the hardest thing of this trip: leave Iceland. It’s never easy to leave things, which is especially true for this trip. I’ve learned so many things, made so many memories, and really just didn’t want to leave the wonderful country of Iceland. At the same time, Jaeja is really curious about the US so I guess we had to go home.

To students who are thinking of going abroad, do it. Nothing could have prepared me for how much I enjoyed that trip, and I’d give anything to do it again. As I prepare to graduate, I will be always focused on helping make our world a safer, kinder, and more sustainable place. Iceland can teach a lot of those lessons, and now it is up to us, the future generations, to put that into place.

Even after writing everything, words cannot describe just how incredible of a trip this was. I would like to thank Dr. Barrry and Erin English for coming on this trip, Olof for being an incredible tour guide, my fellow classmates for being the best crew I could have asked for, and both the Swanson School of Engineering and David C Frederick Honors college for the support on this trip.

So as I close out this blog, I reflect on how much this trip has changed me (okay yeah cliche but it’s true). Iceland is such a unique and beautiful country with so much nature and history. As the plane rolled down the runway to take me back home, I realize just how much I’ve learned and that I will take into my future. And so for now (but certainly not forever), Bless Ísland, takk fyrir allt.