Iceland relies on renew­able energy

A journey through Iceland feels like witnessing the very creation of the Earth. In many loca­tions, white plumes of steam rise from fissures and cracks in the ground, while geysers and hot springs erupt spec­tac­u­larly, shooting water up to 100 meters into the air. You’ll find hot springs and even rivers of warm water, along­side steaming sand­banks at the edge of ice-cold glac­iers. In a bubbling hot-water lake, resourceful visi­tors can be seen cooking eggs and sausages in natural pools along the beach. Addi­tion­ally, a local bakery harnesses geot­hermal heat to bake fresh bread. Thanks to its unique geology and its loca­tion in the North Atlantic, just south of the Arctic Circle, Iceland boasts breath­taking land­scapes andpow­erful natural forces, including fierce winds, frequent earth­quakes, and numerous active volca­noes.

2 km deep bore­holes into the volcano

“There’s a volcanic erup­tion at least every four years, and there has already been six in the last ten months,” reports Antonia Hamann, a German science commu­ni­cator working at the visitor center of the Hell­isheiði geot­hermal power plant, located in the south­west of the island, just 20km from the capital, Reyk­javik. The plant is promi­nently situ­ated on a sparse high plateau, framed by the ridges of the Hengill volcano system. Towering clouds of steam rise into the sky as large pipes snake through the land­scape.

Hot water and steam are extracted from 43 bore­holes around the volcano, with an average depth of 2 km. The power plant harnesses these resources to generate elec­tricity and hot water, which is then pumped into the Reyk­javik metro­pol­itan area, home to nearly three-quar­ters of Iceland’s popu­la­tion of about 400,000 people. With a capacity of 303 megawatts of elec­tricity and 200 megawatts of district heating, Hell­isheiði is one of the largest geot­hermal power plants in the world and the largest in Iceland.

Pioneers in renew­able energy

Together with the nearby Nesjavellir power plant, Hell­isheiði provides 50% of Reykjavik’s hot water. Elec­tricity gener­ated by both facil­i­ties is fed into the national grid, allowing the capital region to rely almost entirely on geot­hermal energy for its district heating. Approxi-mately 3,000 km of under­ground piping supplies hot water to Reyk­javik and its surrounding areas. Addi­tion­ally, snowmelt pipes are installed beneath streets, side­walks, and parking lots, chan­neling warm waste­water to prevent snow and ice buildup. An open system delivers hot water to house­holds, public swim­ming pools, and agri­cul­tural oper­a­tions, including green­house heating.

Today, Iceland is a global leader in util­ising geot­hermal energy for heating. In recent years, elec­tricity gener­a­tion from geot­hermal sources has signif­i­cantly increased, with geot­hermal power plants currently accounting for 25% of the country’s total elec­tricity output. Hydro­elec­tric power also plays a substan­tial role in Iceland’s energy land­scape. Over the course of the 20th century, Iceland trans­formed from one of the poorest coun­tries in Europe, reliant on peat and imported coal, into a nation with a high stan­dard of living, where nearly all energy is derived from renew­able resources. This tran­si­tion has resulted in remark­ably low elec­tricity prices that people in other coun­tries can only envy. “A kilo­watt-hour costs only the equiv­a­lent of five to seven Euro cents here, compared to between 30 and 50 Euro cents in Germany,” explains Antonia Hamann.

Straw­ber­ries and toma­toes from Iceland

Thanks to advance­ments in geot­hermal energy and low energy costs, Iceland has increas­ingly been able to grow a variety of foods year-round in heated green­houses. The days of strug­gling with outdoor fields, where only pota­toes, cabbage, and turnips could be culti­vated until the 1940s, are long gone.

Today, the diver­sity of agri­cul­tural prod­ucts grown in green­houses is impres­sive, including vegeta­bles, mush­rooms, herbs, and even flowers and straw­ber­ries. There was even a brief exper­i­ment with growing bananas. Antonia Hamann regu­larly receives a box of fresh vegeta­bles from one of the local market gardens. Her latest delivery was brim­ming with toma­toes, cucum­bers, green cabbage, chard, broc­coli, radishes, beet­root, and a variety of lettuces and herbs.

“Our busi­ness wouldn’t be prof­itable without afford­able geot­hermal energy,” admits Kristján Geir Gunnarsson, CEO of Friðheimar. His facility is located in Hver­agerði, the region with the most green­houses in Iceland, about 100 km east of Reyk­javik, known for its abun­dance of hot springs and famous geysers. Gunnarsson deeply values the fact that his busi­ness oper­ates in Iceland rather than else­where. “In any other country, the cost of running this produc­tion model would be prohib­i­tive. With the energy we use in our green­houses, we could supply energy to 7,000 people, although we operate on the latest tech­no­log­ical stan­dard.”

The company currently oper­ates 19 green­houses, growing a variety of produce including lettuces, herbs, vegeta­bles, and espe­cially toma­toes. “Fifty percent of all toma­toes in Iceland come from here. We harvest two tonnes every day and employ 29 people specif­i­cally for the tomato busi­ness,” he explains. Remark­ably, three-quar­ters of the toma­toes consumed in Iceland are now grown domes­ti­cally. While Icelandic toma­toes may be more expen­sive than imported ones, the demand for local produce is excep­tion­ally high, espe­cially during the pandemic when interest surged. “Icelandic toma­toes simply taste better,” Kristján Geir Gunnarsson enthuses. The company is also plan­ning to build two new green­houses to expand their tomato produc­tion even further.

A restau­rant in a green­house

A portion of the tomato harvest is desig­nated for the restau­rant located within one of the green­houses, an inno­v­a­tive and now highly successful busi­ness model. Friðheimar is situ­ated along the popular “Golden Circle” tourist route and serves as a key desti­na­tion for many tours. Each year, approx­i­mately 250,000 visi­tors come to learn about the sustain­able, energy-effi­cient prac­tices that utilise geot­hermal power.

Gunnarsson show­cases a box of bees used for polli­nating the tomato plants, empha­sizing their impor­tance in the green­house ecosystem. He points out the pipes on the ground that supply hot water to heat the green­hous-es, with the water sourced from a hot spring just 200 meters away on a nearby hill. Most of the elec­tricity needed for the oper­a­tion – essen­tial for illu­mi­nating the toma­toes for 14 to 17 hours a day – is gener­ated at a hydro­elec­tric plant only 18 km away.

Gunnarsson advises that reser­va­tions should be made six months in advance to secure a table in the restau­rant nestled among the tomato plants. This is despite the premium prices: for instance, a Tómat­súpa (tomato soup served with bread) costs around €22! The bar even offers a unique tomato beer. All the ingre­di­ents used in the dishes come directly from the green­houses. While customers enjoy their meals, employees are busy in the back­ground harvesting fresh ingre­di­ents. The farm shop features a variety of locally made tomato sauces and fresh toma­toes, wrapped in plastic, with five for approx­i­mately €3.50.

Energy self-suffi­cient thanks to water and geot­hermal energy

We continue east along the coastal road, traversing a land­scape shaped by dairy produc­tion. It’s early September, and the meadows are dotted with plastic-wrapped silage bales. To the right of the road, the raging sea crashes against the shore, while to the left, lush meadows and soli­tary farms are nestled in front of glacier-covered moun­tains, creating a scene worthy of a painting. One notable farm is Thor­vald­seyri-Hof, owned by Ólafur Eggertsson, which gained inter­na­tional fame in 2010 when the near by Eyjaf­jal­la­jökull volcano erupted, capturing head­lines around the world.

In response to the influx of curious visi­tors, the family estab­lished a museum along the main road. The museum has since relo­cated to a building on the farm and now attracts only a few visi­tors. In the mean­time, Ólafur’s son, Páll Eggert (45), has taken over the farm, which, in addi­tion to pasture, features 40 ha for growing malting barley, 20ha for oats, and another 20 ha for rape­seed. The farm also houses 60 dairy cows and their offspring, producing 360,000 litres of milk annu­ally for delivery to the dairy. The farms milking is on a robotic milking system.

The farm gener­ates its own elec­tricity through a hydro­elec­tric plant located by a water­fall near the prop­erty. At one point, the family invested in bore­holes around Eyjaf­jal­la­jökull to harness geot­hermal energy, success­fully tapping into hot water at a depth of one kilo­metre, with a temper­a­ture of 66°C. Since 1989, they have oper­ated their own small geot­hermal power plant, which was built by Ólafur’s father. The hot water produced is used to heat both the house and the farm. Recently, they took their sustain­ability efforts a step further. When sales of rape­seed stag­nated, they decided to produce their own biodiesel to fuel their trac­tors. “We are now ener­get­i­cally self-suffi­cient,” says Páll Eggert, clearly proud of their achieve­ments.