Majid Eskafi, a recent graduate of the Coastal and Marine Management program (2016) just published his master´s research titled “Feasibility of seawater heat extraction from sub-Arctic coastal water; a case study of Onundarfjordur, northwest Iceland”, in the international journal Renewable Energy. The journal is one of the best known international journals in its field and is an authoritative source of research related to renewable energy (impact factor = 4.9). Majid's co-authors and advisors are Dr. Ragnar Ásmundsson from Heat Research and Development, and Dr. Steingrímur Jónsson from the University of Akureyri and the Marine and Freshwater Institute of Iceland.

The aim of the study was to assess the feasibility of seawater heat extraction in Önundarfjörður, a fjord located just minutes from the University Centre’s campus. The results of the study indicate that heat extraction from Önundarfjörður is theoretically feasible. Moreover, the results also imply that there may be a possibility of large-scale seawater heat extraction in coastal Arctic and sub-Arctic regions, including e.g. Greenland. Thus there may be a possibility of using heat pumps to provide hot water of up to 80 °C for space heating in these regions. Majid´s research is based models which were derived from temperature measurements made from April 1st 2015 - April 1st 2016 as well as current measurements made by the Westfjords nature research center (Náttúrustofa Vestfjarða) in 2013. You can read more about Majid´s project here.

Majid completed his first master´s degree in Physical Oceanography at the Faculty of Marine Science and Technologies at the Azad University in Iran. He completed his second master´s degree here at the University Centre where he graduated with a Master´s in Resource Management with a focus on Coastal and Marine Management at the University of Akureyri and the University Centre of the Westfjords. Currently Majid is conducting his Ph.D. research at the department of civil and environmental engineering at University of Iceland where he is focusing on the Master planning of the port area of the municipality of Ísafjarðarbær. The master plan is flexible and adaptive, allowing for continuous adaptation and improvement using the latest insights. This should give future generations the ability to modify, upgrade and adapt to future demands. Majid's project is directly advised from the University of Iceland, IHE Delft Institute for Water Education and Delft University of Technology. Here you can see a short interview with Majid in Icelandic.