Opening Session
Excellencies - Ladies and gentlemen
I
I´m delighted being able to participate in such a high level reunion of the Russian energy community as we have here today.
Russia , with its vast resources, a long history of science, technical and industrial evelopment and enormous potential for new development, is of a great significance for the global energy sector.
That's why it will be a great pleasure to sign a Cooperation Agreement between Iceland and Russia later today and I do hope that this Agreement will be of help to increase the cooperation between our countries.
II
The story of the development of renewable energy in Iceland is a tale of nothing less than a revolution in the daily life of the Icelanders and corelates nicely to the raising of our standard of living from a poor nation to a prosperous economy.
At the end of World War II, Iceland was as dependent on imported energy,mostly oil, as any other country in our part of the world.
For centuries we thought that our only natural resources were the fishing stocks in the sea. We didn't realize that we were literally surrounded by treasures in the form of Geysers and waterfalls.
With determination and huge investments in technology, we managed, in the lifetime of only one generation, to harness the Geysers and the waterfalls all around us; to revolutionize the way we produced energy.
We transformed from an oil-dependent economy to meeting over 80% of our energy needs by clean, green energy. The electricity production is almost 100 % renewable and 90 % of the space heating comes from direct use of geothermal heat and the remaining 10 %
from green electricity.
III
One of the biggest advantages of geothermal power is that you can start with a small project and then enhance the capacity step by step as the need for energy increases.
When one considers geothermal energy it's all important to realize its multiple usages, the creation of numerous downstream industries and revenue streams. And not only our houses are heated with geothermal energy, every small community has a big public swimming pool, Reykjavík, our capital has 19 of them.
We have numerous open air spaas and lagoons based on geothermal water, which constitute a vital part of our rapidly growing tourist industry.
Geothermal water is rich in minerals which are good for the skin and is used as a foundation for health tourism.
Geothermal energy is widely used in acriculture, horticulture and fish farming.
Furthermore, pharmaceutical and biochemical industries as well as production of synthetic fuel and hydrogen, can also be based on geothermal wells.
Our renewable energy sector is thus not only a form of an economic activity, saving us lot of costs in foreign currency, but essentially a way of life.
Therefore, we would like to advance to the next stage!
Now the major challenge is to have a shift in the mobile energy sector, the vehicles and machinery on land, the fishing fleet and the aviation, from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources.
IV
Even if we in Iceland have rich energy resources they are not unlimited.
The major source of electricity in Iceland has always been hydropower but in the late eighties it was evident that the electricity production from high temperature geothermal sources was competitive with hydropower.
Since then 750 MW of electricity generation have been taken into use based on Geothermal and there are plans for greater build-up since hydropower resources will soon be more limited than the geothermal ones.
A very important constraint is also that, due to conservation of the cultural heritage, natural phenomena, unique landscapes and sceneries and alternative land use, a part of our resources have to be protected from generation and transmission of power.
To approach this in a systematic way the government of Iceland initiated a master plan program where power plant options were evaluated by expert groups and ranked according to the above aspects.
They were then divided into three classes, utilization , waiting list and conservation.
This proposed classification will now be processed by the parliament and the intention is that the decision of the parliament will be legally binding for a period of four years.
V
The electricity generation in our country is 5 times larger than what we need for the normal community. 80 % of the electricity generated is sold to foreign companies that have moved their energy intensive industries to Iceland.
We are in a rather special situation, placed in the middle of the North Atlantic with a captive energy system.
The distance over sea to our nearest markets is 1200 km to Norway or Scotland and 1800 km to the cost of Europe. The largest subsea cable so far is the NorNed cable from Norway to the Netherlands, about 600 km.
We are not excluding the possibility of a future cable connection but we are working on a thorough feasibility study.
VI
Ladies and gentlemen!
The development of the renewable energy resources in Iceland has always involved a strong engagement both from the government and the municipalities.
Building up research and knowledge and managing risks in a pioneer technology based on natural resources demands a strong backup.
Very important feature here is that all information on research and collected data is stored centrally and shared freely.
Iceland has a long history in international cooperation on the development of renewable energy resources around the world, especially geothermal energy. We have run the United Nations University Geothermal Training program for over 30 years.
A substantial part of our development aid is used for development of renewable energy sources.
We have researchers and experts working on projects in most corners of the world and in recent years we have together with other countries established the network EDIN, energy development of Island nations.
In addition we hold the chairmanship of IPGT, the International Partnership on Geothermal Technologies.
Furthermore we have initiated an ERANET project for the synchronization of research and knowledge in the field of geothermal in the EES countries.
VII
We have learned that progress is usually found in the intersection between different cultures, technology areas, research communities etc.
The geothermal industry would not be at this stage of development it is today if it were not for the transfer of technologies from the oil and gas industry. A valuable source and challenges for the scientists around the world to share knowledge.
But still we are facing a whole field of technical challenges:
We need more effective geophysical mapping of the crust!
We are drilling deeper for fluid temperatures up to 600 degrees!
We seek to master the chemistry of geothermal fluids!
We explore the braking up of rocks at large depth to create or to increase the permeability of hydronic systems!
I have a strong feeling that cooperation between Iceland and Russia on these issues will create new knowledge and generate interesting future projects.
Thank you for your attention: Spasiba