Could Iceland use clean technology to jumpstart its ailing economy?

Articles — By forcechange on November 20, 2008 9:56 am

There has been a lot of discussion lately about how a green energy revolution could help jumpstart the US economy.  There is one place in the world where this concept may be even more applicable: Iceland. 

Iceland is sitting on some of the world’s greatest geothermal resources, and subsequently has a unique understanding and expertise in how to harness it.  Unfortunately for them, they are also sitting on one of the developed world’s worst economic situations due to the recent meltdown of their banking system.

Now that they have applied triage to that financial system, they are going to have to figure out a way to build their economy back up.  One possible route could be through exporting their unique expertise on how to turn geothermal heat into electricity.

Interestingly, it wasn’t that long ago that Iceland was completely dependant on foreign imports of coal to power the country.  But Iceland, which sits on a tectonic “hotspot” has, over the past generation, thoroughly developed methods and technologies that allows them to tap into the geothermal heat beneath their feet, in order to generate tremendous amounts of electricity.  Geothermal energy, along with hydroelectric, has allowed Iceland to build what is possibly the cleanest electricity grid in the world.  In fact, 99% of their electricity comes from these renewable sources. 

Since renewable energy projects are going to be growing rapidly throughout the world, this will put Iceland in a unique position to export their expertise and technology, which just might be the engine to heal its broken economy.

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