Iceland has learned to live with its volcanoes and geothermal heat helps to warm 90 per cent of its houses at vastly reduced financial and environmental cost.

Now a group in Friesland in the north of The Netherlands, the Stogef Foundation wants to do the same.

Whilst there are no active volcanoes in that country, there is a dormant one in the Wadden Sea which it is believed still has significant heat within its layers.

The plan which the Foundation wants to have approved by the local council is to tap into the surrounding area below the sea, ensuring that the point of entrance is not the dormant volcano itself as that could be very dangerous.

It is believed that by sinking a pipeline into rocks near to the volcano, which covers several kilometres, with the tip appearing above the sea, water heated up to 135°C can be extracted.

The Zuidwal volcano has not been active since the late Jurassic (c. 160-145 million years ago) and has since been covered by more than two kilometres of sedimentary rock, mainly Cretaceous shales and sandstones.

This water, classified as geothermal heat could then be pumped to around 7,000 households in the area and provide hot water for heating at relatively low cost.

Many local residents are opposed to adding more wind turbines to the landscape and there is always the problem of not only using precious energy to create the metal giants and erect them, but once they become obsolete there is the added problem of dismantling them and then disposing of the turbine blades.

The initial discovery of the heat source was made by French oil company Elf Petroland whilst exploring for oil and at that time, the company did not consider it economic to try to exploit the heated water that was found.

Now, as the need for alternative energy sources becomes more important, this could be a useful and environmentally friendly way of saving ever more expensive electricity.