Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...

is a world leader in renewable energy. 100% of Iceland's

electricity grid An electrical grid is an interconnected network for electricity delivery from producers to consumers. Electrical grids vary in size and can cover whole countries or continents. It consists of:Kaplan, S. M. (2009). Smart Grid. Electrical Power ...

is produced from

renewable resource A renewable resource, also known as a flow resource, is a natural resource which will replenish to replace the portion depleted by usage and consumption, either through natural reproduction or other recurring processes in a finite amount of ti ...

s. In terms of total energy supply, 85% of the total

primary energy Primary energy (PE) is an energy form found in nature that has not been subjected to any human engineered conversion process. It is energy contained in raw fuels, and other forms of energy, including waste, received as input to a system. Prim ...

supply in

is derived from domestically produced

renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

sources.

Geothermal energy Geothermal energy is the thermal energy in the Earth's crust which originates from the formation of the planet and from radioactive decay of materials in currently uncertain but possibly roughly equal proportions. The high temperature and pr ...

provided about 65% of primary energy in 2016, the share of

hydropower Hydropower (from el, ὕδωρ, "water"), also known as water power, is the use of falling or fast-running water to produce electricity or to power machines. This is achieved by converting the gravitational potential or kinetic energy of ...

was 20%, and the share of

fossil fuels A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel. The main fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels ma ...

(mainly oil products for the transport sector) was 15%. The

Icelandic government The politics of Iceland take place in the framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the president is the head of state, while the prime minister of Iceland serves as the head of government in a multi-party system ...

aspires that the nation will be

carbon neutral Carbon neutrality is a state of net-zero carbon dioxide emissions. This can be achieved by balancing emissions of carbon dioxide with its removal (often through carbon offsetting) or by eliminating emissions from society (the transition to the " ...

by 2040. The largest obstacles to this are

road transport Road transport or road transportation is a type of transport using roads. Transport on roads can be roughly grouped into the transportation of goods and transportation of people. In many countries licensing requirements and safety regulations ...

and the

fishing industry The fishing industry includes any industry or activity concerned with taking, culturing, processing, preserving, storing, transporting, marketing or selling fish or fish products. It is defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization as including ...

. In 2015, the total electricity consumption in Iceland was 18,798 GWh. Renewable energy provided almost 100% of production, with 75% coming from hydropower and 24% from geothermal power. Only two islands, Grimsey and Flatey, are not connected to the national grid and so rely primarily on diesel generators for electricity. Most of the hydropower plants are owned by

Landsvirkjun Landsvirkjun, () the National Power Company of Iceland, is Iceland's largest electricity generator. Landsvirkjun operates 18 power plants in Iceland concentrated on five main areas of operation. History Landsvirkjun was founded on 1 July 1965 b ...

(the National Power Company) which is the main supplier of electricity in Iceland.

produces 12,469 GWh which is 75% of the total electricity production in Iceland. The main use of geothermal energy is for

space heating Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) is the use of various technologies to control the temperature, humidity, and purity of the air in an enclosed space. Its goal is to provide thermal comfort and acceptable indoor air quality. HV ...

, with the heat being distributed to buildings through extensive district-heating systems. Nearly all Icelandic homes are heated with renewable energy, with 90% of homes being via geothermal energy. The remaining homes that are not located in areas with geothermal resources are heated by renewable electricity instead. Iceland is the world's largest green energy producer per capita and largest electricity producer per capita, with approximately 55,000 kWh per person per year. In comparison, the EU average is less than 6,000 kWh. Most of this electricity is used in energy-intensive industrial sectors, such as

aluminium production Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...

, which developed in Iceland thanks to the low cost of electricity.

Energy resources

Iceland's unique geology allows it to produce renewable energy relatively cheaply, from a variety of sources. Iceland is located on the

Mid-Atlantic Ridge The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a mid-ocean ridge (a divergent or constructive plate boundary) located along the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, and part of the longest mountain range in the world. In the North Atlantic, the ridge separates the North A ...

, which makes it one of the most tectonically active places in the world. There are over 200 volcanoes located in Iceland and over 600

hot spring A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by circ ...

s.Sveinbjorn Bjornsson, ''Geothermal Development and Research in Iceland'' (Ed. Helga Bardadottir. Reykjavik: Gudjon O, 2006) There are over 20 high-temperature steam fields that are at least 150 °C /nowiki>300 °F/nowiki>; many of them reach temperatures of 250 °C. This is what allows Iceland to harness

geothermal energy Geothermal energy is the thermal energy in the Earth's crust which originates from the formation of the planet and from radioactive decay of materials in currently uncertain but possibly roughly equal proportions. The high temperature and pr ...

, and these steam fields are used for heating everything from houses to swimming pools. Hydropower is harnessed through glacial

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of ...

s and

waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in several ...

s, both of which are common in Iceland. Iceland also has an exclusive economic zone measuring some 751,345 km² which could be used for

offshore wind farm Offshore wind power or offshore wind energy is the generation of electricity through wind farms in bodies of water, usually at sea. There are higher wind speeds offshore than on land, so offshore farms generate more electricity per amount of ...

s. By comparison, Germany with an exclusive economic zone measuring 57,485 km² produced roughly 24 TWh of electricity with its offshore wind farms in 2021. However, both the

German Bight The German Bight (german: Deutsche Bucht; da, tyske bugt; nl, Duitse bocht; fry, Dútske bocht; ; sometimes also the German Bay) is the southeastern bight of the North Sea bounded by the Netherlands and Germany to the south, and Denmark and ...

and Germany's share of the Baltic Sea are relatively shallow, whereas Iceland's waters include some comparatively deep parts of the North Atlantic and the

Iceland Sea The Iceland Sea is a small body of water delimited by the Jan Mayen fracture zone to the north, Greenland to the west, the Denmark Strait to the south, and the Jan Mayen Ridge to the east. Depths usually range from 500 to 2,000 meters but can be s ...

. This could make

offshore construction Offshore construction is the installation of structures and facilities in a marine environment, usually for the production and transmission of electricity, oil, gas and other resources. It is also called maritime engineering. Construction a ...

more challenging and costly or outright impossible in the worst case.

Sources

Hydropower

The first

plant was built in 1904 by a local

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...

. It was located in a small town outside of

Reykjavík Reykjavík ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. Its latitude is 64°08' N, making it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. With a po ...

and produced 9 kW of power. The first municipal hydroelectric plant was built in 1921, and it could produce 1 MW of power. This plant single-handedly quadrupled the amount of

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as describe ...

in the country.19th World Energy Congress, ''Sustainable Generation and Utilization of Energy The Case of Iceland'' (Sydney: 2004) The 1950s marked the next evolution in

hydroelectric plant Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined an ...

s. Two plants were built on the

Sog River Sog (; more commonly Sogið ) is a river in Iceland. It runs from the lake Þingvallavatn for to its confluence with the river Hvítá, forming the river Ölfusá which then runs for another 25 km into the Atlantic Ocean. Its average disc ...

, one in 1953 which produced 31 MW, and the other in 1959 which produced 26.4 MW. These two plants were the first built for industrial purposes and they were co-owned by the

. This process continued in 1965 when the national power company,

, was founded. It was owned by both the Icelandic government and the municipality of

. In 1969, they built a 210 MW plant on the Þjórsá River that would supply the southeastern area of

with electricity and run an

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...

smelting Smelting is a process of applying heat to ore, to extract a base metal. It is a form of extractive metallurgy. It is used to extract many metals from their ores, including silver, iron, copper, and other base metals. Smelting uses heat and a c ...

plant that could produce 33,000 tons of aluminum a year. This trend continued and increases in the production of

hydroelectric power Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined an ...

are directly related to

industrial development Industrialisation ( alternatively spelled industrialization) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive re-organisation of an econom ...

. In 2005, Landsvirkjun produced 7,143 GWh of electricity total of which 6,676 GWh or 93% was produced via hydroelectric

power plant A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an el ...

s. 5,193 GWh or 72% was used for power-intensive industries like aluminum smelting. In 2009 Iceland built its biggest hydroelectric project to date, the

Kárahnjúkar Hydropower Plant Kárahnjúkar Hydropower Plant ( is, Kárahnjúkavirkjun ), officially called Fljótsdalur Power Station ( is, Fljótsdalsstöð ) is a hydroelectric power plant in Fljótsdalshérað municipality in eastern Iceland, designed to produce annuall ...

, a 690 MW hydroelectric plant to provide energy for another aluminum smelter.Helga Bardadottir, ''Energy in Iceland.'' (Reykjavik: Hja Godjon O, 2004) This project was opposed strongly by environmentalists. Other hydroelectric power stations in Iceland include: Blöndustöð (150 MW), Búrfellsstöð (270 MW), Hrauneyjafosstöð (210 MW), Laxárstöðvar (28 MW), Sigöldustöð (150 MW), Sogsstöðvar (89 MW), Sultartangastöð (120 MW), and Vatnsfell Power Station, Vatnsfellsstöð (90 MW). Iceland is the first country in the world to create an economy generated through industries fueled by

, and there is still a large amount of untapped hydroelectric energy in Iceland. In 2002 it was estimated that Iceland only generated 17% of the total harnessable hydroelectric energy in the country. Iceland's government believes another 30 TWh of hydropower could be produced each year, while taking into account the sources that must remain untapped for environmental reasons.

Geothermal power

For centuries, the Icelanders, people of Iceland have used their hot springs for bathing and washing clothes. The first use of

for heating did not come until 1907 when a farmer ran a concrete pipe from a hot spring to lead steam into his house. In 1930, the first Pipeline transport, pipeline was constructed in

and was used to heat two schools, 60 homes, and the main hospital. It was a pipeline that ran from one of the hot springs outside the city. In 1943 the first district heating company was started with the use of geothermal power. An pipeline ran through the city of Reykjavík, and by 1945 it was connected to over 2,850 homes. Currently geothermal power heats 89% of the houses in Iceland, and over 54% of the

used in Iceland comes from geothermal sources. Geothermal power is used for many things in Iceland. 57.4% of the energy is used for space heat, 25% is used for electricity, and the remaining amount is used in many miscellaneous areas such as swimming pools, Fish farming, fish farms, and greenhouses. The government of Iceland has played a major role in the advancement of geothermal energy. In the 1940s the State Electricity Authority was started by the government in order to increase the knowledge of geothermal resources and the utilization of geothermal power in Iceland. The agency's name was later changed to the National Energy Authority (Orkustofnun) in 1967. This agency has been very successful and has made it economically :wikt:viable, viable to use geothermal energy as a source for heating in many different areas throughout the country. Geothermal power has been so successful that the government no longer has to lead the research in this field because it has been taken over by the geothermal industries. Geothermal power plants in Iceland include Nesjavellir Geothermal Power Station, Nesjavellir (120 MW), Reykjanes Power Station, Reykjanes (100 MW), Hellisheiði Power Station, Hellisheiði (303 MW), Krafla Power Station, Krafla (60 MW), and Svartsengi Power Station, Svartsengi (46.5 MW). The Svartsengi power plant and the Nesjavellir power plant produce both electricity and hot water for heating purposes. The move from oil-based heating to geothermal heating saved Iceland an estimated total of United States dollar, US $8.2 billion from 1970 to 2000 and lowered the release of carbon dioxide emissions by 37%. It would have taken 646,000 tons of oil to heat Iceland's homes in 2003. The Icelandic government also believes that there are many more untapped geothermal sources throughout the country, estimating that over 20 TWh per year of unharnessed geothermal energy is available. This is about 3.3% of the 600TWh per year of electricity used in Germany. Combined with the unharnessed feasible hydropower, tapping these sources to their full extent would provide Iceland another 50 TWh of energy per year, all from renewable sources. Iceland's abundant geothermal energy has also enabled renewable energy initiatives, such as Carbon Recycling International's carbon dioxide to methanol fuel process, which could help reduce Iceland's dependence on fossil fuels.

Solar power

Iceland has relatively low insolation, due to the high latitude, thus limited solar power potential. The total yearly insolation is about 20% less than Paris, and half as much as Solar power in Spain, Madrid, with very little in the winter.

Wind power

There is an ongoing project in checking the feasibility of a wind farm in Iceland. In 2012, two wind turbines were installed in South Iceland and in 2015 a wind atlas, named icewind, was completed.

Experiments with hydrogen as a fuel

Imported petroleum, oil fulfills most of Iceland's remaining energy needs, the cost of which has caused the country to focus on domestic renewable energy. Professor Bragi Árnason first proposed the idea of using Hydrogen fuel, hydrogen as a fuel source in Iceland during the 1970s when the 1973 oil crisis, oil crisis occurred. The idea was considered untenable, but in 1999 Icelandic New Energy was established to govern the transition of Iceland to the first hydrogen society by 2050.Icelandic New Energy
accessed 2007-05-02 In the early 2000s, the viability of hydrogen as a fuel source was considered, and whether Iceland's small population, small scale of the country's infrastructure, and access to natural energy would ease a transition from oil to hydrogen.

ECTOS Hydrogen demonstration project

The Fuel Cell Bus Club#ECTOS, ECTOS (Ecological City Transport System) demonstration project ran from 2001 to August 2005.ECTOS - hydrogen buses in Reykjavik Iceland
''SU:GRE'', published 2007, accessed 2007-05-04 The project used three hydrogen fuel cell buses and one fuel station, with Strætó bs. From January 2006 to January 2007 testing of hydrogen buses continued as part of the HyFLEET:CUTE project, which spanned 10 cities in Europe, China and Australia and was sponsored by the European Commission's 6th framework programme. The project studied the long-term effects and most-efficient ways of using hydrogen powered buses. The buses were run for longer periods of time and the durability of the fuel cell was compared to the internal combustion engine, which can theoretically last much longer. The project also compared the fuel efficiency of the original buses with that of new buses from a number of manufacturers. The country's first hydrogen station opened in 2003 in

. To avoid transportation difficulties, hydrogen is produced on-site with electrolysis (breaking down water into hydrogen and oxygen). The hydrogen station was closed in 2010, but was reopened in 2018.

Education and research

Several Icelandic institutions offer education in renewable energy at a university level and research programmes for its advancement: * University of Iceland in Reykjavík, the country's largest research institution in renewable energy * Reykjavik University, School of Science and Engineering * Keilir, Atlantic center of excellence in Ásbrú, runs a research center in energy sciences. * RES - The School for Renewable Energy Science, in Akureyri, offers a one-year graduate (M.Sc.) programme in renewable energy science. * Iceland School of Energy, in Reykjavik, offers M.Sc. studies in renewable energy engineering, policy and science. * University of Akureyri Several companies, public and private, are conducting extensive research in the field of renewable energy: *The National Energy Authority of Iceland is charged with conducting energy research and providing consulting services related to energy development and utilization. *

, the national electric company, conducts research in hydro-electric and geothermal power and funds a great deal of related research. *The Icelandic Energy Portal is an independent information source on the Icelandic energy sector. *Iceland Geosurvey (ÍSOR) is a public consulting and research institute providing specialist services to the Icelandic power industry, dedicated mainly to geothermal and hydroelectric research.

References

Bibliography

* 19th World Energy Congress. ''Sustainable Generation and Utilization of Energy The Case of Iceland.'' Sydney: 2004. * Bardadottir, Helga. ''Energy in Iceland.'' Reykjavik: Hja Godjon O, 2004. * Bjornsson, Sveinbjorn. ''Geothermal Development and Research in Iceland.'' Ed. Helga Bardadottir. Reykjavik: Gudjon O, 2006.

External links

Icelandic Energy Portal

Renewable Energy in Iceland - Nordic Energy Solutions

Kárahnjúkar hydropower project

Saving Iceland - direct action movement against heavy industry, large dams and large-scale geothermal exploitation in Iceland

Orkustofnun - Icelandic National Energy Authority

Hydrogen in Iceland: Current status and future aspects (Icelandic New Energy, September 2006)

Energy in Iceland: The Resource, its Utilisation and the Energy Policy (Minister of Industry and Commerce, 2000-01-03)
* - a short talk by Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson
Geothermal Energy Leaves the Window Open for Iceland's Economy

"Meet Iceland - a Pioneer in the Use of Renewable Resources". A brochure on renewable energy solutions in Iceland. Touches upon everything from geothoermal and hydro, to alternative fuels.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Energy In Iceland Energy in Iceland,