In these days of high oil prices there's a huge demand for alternative sources of energy and Iceland is showing the way when it comes to the use of Geothermal energy.

Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, the President of Iceland, in his address to nation said: “We have succeeded, during my life time to transform our energy system from being over 80 per cent dependent on coal and oil. To having achieved 100 per cent of our electricity being produced from clean energy resources."

The primary clean resource here is geothermal – the internal heat of the earth. The temperature can reach over 6,000 degrees Celsius, meaning there's a massive energy source right underneath our feet.

But to make geothermal a serious, commercially viable energy source, the technology has to improve further, and more funding is needed as one of the major downsides to geothermal is the expense.

Getting a geothermal plant up and running can cost over $150 million, depending on how deep they have to drill to get down to the energy. Sometimes it's only a few hundred meters but it can be as far as 3 kilometers.

But then much like a nuclear power plant, once operational, running costs are low, and the plant can produce energy for decades. 

With the oil prices at record levels, there's a green rush going on, and geothermal could well benefit.

So if governments are serious about saving the earth, one of the solutions could be to start drilling deeper into it.