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Iceland’s economy runs hot and then cold—and then hot and
cold again! And Icelanders like it that way. Created from a volcano more than
50 million years ago, Iceland’s environment is one of the harshest yet one of
the kindest when it comes to energy. The
island nation sits atop this natural heat pack and is, as a result, poised to
become the first country in the world to run 100% on renewable energy. This is
because the volcano is still active bubbling and ulcerating perpetually
altering the landscape.
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The Icelandic people extract warm water and store it in
tanks to provide an unlimited supply of free central heating. The heated water
is extracted and placed into tanks where it is converted to steam. The pressurized steam then turns the turbines,
which operate the country’s geothermal power stations providing electricity to
the people and businesses of Iceland.
This is very important for high tech companies that require
an enormous amount of power to operate their equipment. In fact, more than half of the energy
required to operate their computer servers and other high tech equipment is in
the form of cooling equipment to temper the heat generated by the computers for
their operation. Technology giants are
beginning to get it. Facebook has relocated its server farm to Sweden and
Google is operating out of Finland. This
leaves other companies like Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and IBM to speculate.
Iceland might be a more optimal choice though because while
it seems odd to suggest establishing such equipment on a grumbling landscape,
only the eastern side of the island is actively erupting. Further the
prevailing winds take volcanic ashes east. This leaves the western side of the
island nation crisp and clear with all of the underlying benefits of the
geothermal features. The ever-ready source for heat in the freezing cold
climate makes its heating more than just environmentally subsidized—it is free.
And by harvesting its strengths under steam pressure it electrifies as well.
In addition to harvesting the natural resources for
immediate benefit, Icelandic entrepreneurs have also embarked upon a new
venture utilizing Geosynthesis to export their resource in form of a new
product called Volcanol, which is blended into gasoline. The new product is
compatible with existing energy and fuel infrastructure and meets renewable
energy directives. Icelandic company Carbon Recycling International has begun
to sell this product commercially.
This is an economic game changer for Iceland. Iceland
recently experienced an economic downturn as a result of the failure of the
banking industry in 2008 and currently tourism is the primary industry.
However, with geothermal technology and its associative operational elements
firmly in place, Iceland anticipates turning their economy around by inviting
high tech companies requiring huge amounts of operational power to relocate to
this global hot spot.
Read more here:
OnEarth
and Yale
Environment 360
And see video here:
Photo Credit: Shutterstock
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