IHA World Congress 2009
Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen
It´s an honour to be invited to address this World Congress.
Energy production is both vital for economic growth and of growing concern because of climate issues.
That is why we here in Iceland are very proud of our energy profile with all of our electricity generated by renewable sources, both hydro and geothermal and most of our space heating requirements met by geothermal water or electricity.
In fact only about 20% of our total energy need is met by imported fuels, mostly for transport and the fishing fleet.
But we still strive to do better and the present government has made a declaration that its holistic energy policy will focus on further transition from imported fuels to renewable energy and that energy from hydropower and geothermal sources will be harnessed carefully, protecting the unique features of the Icelandic nature .
There will also be a stronger focus on the diversity, sustainability and the high technology content of the new energy intensive industries.
The planning of new power plants will thus be based on the ongoing so called Framework program for the continued utilization of hydropower and geothermal power.
The goal of the framework program on is in an objective way to evaluate and rank possible options for electricity generation with respect to protection and alternative utilization of Icelandic nature.
The power plant options will be evaluated depending on the power potential, economic potential, national economic potential and possible impact on nature and historic sites.
Also possible conflicting interests with respect do alternative utilisation of the land will be analysed and evaluated.
The intention is to establish an objective specialist evaluation that can support government and communities in their decision making and generate a balanced view on possible power plant issues where the conflicting interest of nature preservation and utilization of the Icelandic energy resources are considered.
- The impact of different power plant options on landscapes, unique geological formations, vegetation, fauna and historic sites.
- The impact on tourism, recreation, forestry, fishing and hunting
- The impact on alternative production options and long term impact on economy, production and regional development
- Evaluation and ranking of different power plant options based on power and energy capacity, production cost and overall economy.
The methodology is somewhat similar to parts of the proposed sustainability protocol that is being processed by the Sustainability Forum of the IHA with support from the Norwegian, German and the Icelandic government.
The idea is that the issues will be treated by specialists that will give their marks that can be assessed to create a holistic view on each power plant option.
Comparing the two works we see that the main difference is our emphasis on the landscaping and the visual impact of the power plants and the power lines.
When you will find opportunities to visit the countryside in Iceland and experience the unique open mountain landscapes with far views you will better understand the reasons for this.
Hopefully this will lead to a group of power plant options that can be considered as non-controversial.
We also expect to identify a group of options where the arguments for protection are dominating and a third group where the acceptance could rely on more elaborated planning and design that would consider the needs for protection of nature and minimum visual impact in the landscape.
The final outcome of the Framework program will define the limits for our today known accessible power from hydropower and geothermal power but then again the full potential of our geothermal sources is not yet known.
The ongoing so called Icelandic deep drilling project, where we try to drill closer to the volcanic magma for a supercritical fluid of 500 to 600 degrees centigrade may add a new dimension to this.
One of our greatest challenges is the transition from imported fossil fuels to fuels from renewable energy for the mobile parts of our energy system for communication, transport and construction work.
This stands for the 20 % of our energy system where we still are emitting CO2 to the atmosphere.
We have earlier been taking active part in the introduction of the hydrogen cycle carrying out several test projects and in the western part of Reykjavik you will find a hydrogen fuel station.
A large scale introduction however will have to await new major advances in cost effective fuel cells and storage systems for hydrogen.
We are now considering the introduction of battery cars which in Iceland would make perfect sense since our electricity is 100 % from renewable.
A feasibility study is being carried out to use CO2 emissions from a smelter together with hydrogen to produce methanol that can be mixed with petrol or so called DME or dimethylether that can be used more or less directly for diesel engines.
The positive thing here is that we would be reducing our industrial emissions at the same time as we produce the fuel.
We are also considering biomass as an option and in future we would like to see our huge sources of low valued waste heat from the geothermal power plants utilised for large scale algae production.
As I am sure you are all aware of we Icelanders face an enormous economical task.
The Icelandic banking system collapsed last autumn in the wake of the global financial crisis.
We expect Gross Domestic Product to contract by 10.6% this year and unemployment is of now major concern.
The government has responded with measures according to an economic plan that was put forward in November 2008, in consultation with the International Monetary Fund.
The objective of the plan is to restore the banking system, reopen the foreign exchange market and ensure the stability of Treasury finances.
We are reaching some important milestones this summer and are optimistic that the next phase will enable us to recover rather quickly with economic growth in 2011.
I have the privilege of serving as minister of industry, energy and tourism which is sometimes referred to as the ministry of opportunities these days.
We all know that the only sure way out of an economic crisis is by creating value and export revenues.
I firmly believe that our sources of energy, expertise in this field and innovation will mark our way out of the current situation.
Many people are worried that the current world wide economic crisis will result in less environmental awareness and the retreat of the so called “green values”.
Here in Iceland we believe that the crisis will give strengthen the green economy.
We have been approached by several foreign companies interested in green field projects in Iceland, based on our energy resources.
Many of these projects involve using our green energy for operations aimed at diminishing the need for fossil fuels, e.g. by producing silicon for solar panels or by running more eco friendly server farms.
This makes me more optimistic and we have discovered that despite Iceland´s somewhat damaged reputation in the financial world, our reputation in the field of renewable energy and its utilisation is intact.
I welcome you to Iceland and thank you for choosing our contry as the venue for your World Congress. I hope your work here will be fruitful and that your organisation and companies continue to contribute to sustainable energy solution for the benefit of us all.