Iceland has no coal, no petroleum reserves and no trees. Yet it produces the cheapest electricity in the world. How? From green energy – all of it. Iceland makes electricity using 70.1% hydropower and 29.9% geothermal energy. The country is blessed with a tremendous amount of renewable energy from sources, such as volcanoes that provide geothermal energy and glaciers that power electric turbines.

Iceland uses natural warm water to heat 90% of its homes and swimming pools, and for de-icing systems in driveways and city streets. In the near future, the country plans to use geothermal electricity to make hydrogen fuel that will power its vehicles and fishing trawlers that currently use fossil fuels. Geothermal energy is not just used for heat and electricity. President Grímsson says that Iceland uses geothermal energy to promote tourism, for health and wellness, for heavy industries and for educational purposes. Iceland aims to be carbon-free and oil-free by 2050.

Green energy for Industrial Use

1. Aluminum

Green energy is being used in Iceland for aluminum production. The aluminum industry requires massive amounts of energy to produce the metal. Alcoa, the world’s largest aluminum company, has a huge aluminum plant in Iceland that uses hydro electric power. The aluminum industry has created jobs and fueled the economy. However aluminum production is not an environmentally friendly industry. Environmentalists have criticized Iceland for using green power to fuel a non-green industry.

2. Data Center

Data centers which house computers and storage systems, have electric power as its largest operating costs. According to Tom Foremski, Iceland could become a site for massive datacenters due to its location, availability of green power and low temperatures.

Data Islandia and Hitachi Data Systems say Iceland has a huge potential to become a green datacenter provider for companies in Europe and North America. Due to low temperatures and abundant geothermal energy, Iceland can become the ‘datacenter capital of the world.’ However, bandwidth and speed required for accessing data in Iceland is a big challenge. Sol Squire, managing director of Data Islandia, explains “”It can take up to three days to transfer a petabyte of data by cable.”

The bandwidth and speed problem can now be solved with the help of Data Scooter. Data Islandia and Hitachi Data Systems have developed a disk-based data transfer device called Data Scooter for speedy data transfer. With the use of Data Scooter, data transfer can be done in less than a day. This new development could spur the growth of a new industry and another way to export a natural resource.

Conclusion

There is a lot to learn from Iceland’s sustainability practices. Not every country has the benefit of possessing such extensive renewable resources. However, making use of renewable energy apart from generating electricity is a wonderful lesson Iceland has to teach. At the same time, I think the use of green energy for a non-green industry such as aluminum production is wrong. Economic growth should not happen at the cost of environmental damage, at least not in the world’s largest renewable power generating country.