I wanted to visit Iceland for a while, mainly because of my perception of the wild landscape and geothermal pools with the contrast of an Arctic climate with people sitting outside in natural hot tubs in the dead of winter. The timing and opportunity recently presented itself and so I jumped on it. As I often do before traveling somewhere new, I did some research on news and current events in Iceland. I found that global warming and renewable energy were the hot topics, so to speak.

On the way to Reykjavik Energy's new power plant.

I came across an article detailing the president of Iceland's remarks at the Global Climate Summit in Washington. He discussed the fact that Iceland had excellent records of the changes to its glaciers and could serve as a barometer, thermometer, what have you, for global warming. In addition, he pointed out that Iceland was a world leader in renewable energy development and implementation. The country derives its electricity and nearly all of its heat and hot water from renewable sources--in particular hydroelectric (dams) and geothermal (volcanic hot steam/water). Iceland sits on top of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a geological hotspot. The ridge is where the American and European tectonic plates emerge from the earth as a volcanic mountain range. Magma rises from deep inside the earth and diverges as it rises, causing the two plates to grow and separate from each other.

The ridge bisects Iceland, and the geology where the plates spread on the surface is quite striking. A beautiful valley separates the two plate walls that slowly continue to separate from each other.

This geology means that Iceland is a volcanic country with hot magma bubbling under its surface. This in turn results in a huge volume of boiling water below the country's surface. For decades now the country has been harnessing this renewable energy to provide home heating, hot water, and electricity. Hot water is piped from below the surface to storage and distribution tanks and then ultimately pumped out to houses. Hot steam is used to spin turbines that generate electricity. The hot water is so ubiquitous that many streets and sidewalks in Reykjavik are warmed by geothermal hot water, and the little snow that falls on the city melts when it hits the warmed streets.

The country uses little or no fossil fuel for electricity, home heating, or hot water. Part of the reason this is possible is due to the fact that the population is roughly 300,000 people and two-thirds of Icelanders live in the Reykjavik metropolitan area. The country is continuing to build new geothermal and hydroelectric plants to power the growing industry in the country, particularly the aluminum industry. In general, the only opposition to geothermal power generation is the footprint of the plants. People don't want to see too much landscape consumed by power infrastructure. Hydroelectric plants generate more controversy since they involve damming rivers or glacial flows, and that means disrupting rivers and creating large lakes.

Skogafoss Falls by the Myrdalsjokull Glacier.

The long-term goal of the government is to eliminate all fossil fuel consumption, and that means replacing internal combustion engines--converting the transportation fleet to renewable technology. The country is already developing hydrogen fuel cell powered buses and hopes to lead the world in the development and implementation of fuel cell technology. Challenges remain for private cars, the national airline, and the fishing fleet.

One other area of experimentation is carbon sequestration. Even geothermal power plants emit carbon dioxide (a natural component of the underground steam), a primary greenhouse gas. Reykjavik Energy and others are experimenting with advanced forms of carbon sequestration. The objective is to actually remove carbon from the atmosphere--trees and plants do this naturally through photosynthesis--and one approach is geological sequestration. This involves capturing CO2 and pumping it underground to trap it in what are in effect underground caves--often where oil had been previously pumped out or in coal seams.

Due do Iceland's volcanic geology, it has a large concentration of underground basalt. Scientists believe that this basalt will not only hold the carbon dioxide underground, but will chemically react with it so it will break it down rather than simply trap it (where it can potentially be released). It is not clear at this point how successful this strategy will be, but scientists are optimistic, and encourage others to partner with them in exploring this approach. Reykjavik Energy is working on mineral sequestration research technology and will explore this process in conjunction with their new Hellis Heidar Virkjun powerplant.

Ultimately this would complete Iceland's global warming "triple crown". The country is a leader in measuring and studying the causes and effects of global warming, it is a world leader in renewable energy, and it could also lead the way in carbon sequestration--removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and slowing global warming.

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