Iceland’s Ice Is Melting So Fast That It’s Boosting Hydropower
Melting glaciers are creating a green energy windfall in Iceland—but for how long?
CLIMATEWIRE | REYKJAVÍK, Iceland — Few countries can compete with Iceland when it comes to renewable energy. The island nation gets nearly 100 percent of its electric power from green sources, and Iceland has championed the use of both geothermal energy and hydroelectricity.
That makes the country a model for a world trying to fight climate change — which is ironic because Iceland’s electric grid is only going to get stronger as the world gets hotter.
The reason? Hydroelectricity. Or more specifically, melting glaciers.
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Iceland gets more than 70 percent of its power from hydroelectric stations fed by glacial meltwaters. So as the Earth heats up and glaciers melt faster, hydroelectric stations will have more water to spin turbines and power the grid — a silver lining for a country mourning its glacial decline.
“When the glaciers melt, then it will be more production from hydro,” said Guðlaugur Þór Þórðarson, minister of the Environment, Energy and Climate, in an interview with E&E News. “We have everything to be the mecca of green energy, and that’s what we want to do.”
Climate change is already making a difference.
Nearly all of Iceland’s glaciers have been shedding mass since the 1990s, and that’s led to an increase in hydro inflow — a boost that the country’s power system “has been mostly able to utilize,” according to a report released by the European Union.
Locals see the potential, too.
“We are anticipating more for the next hundred years — more water flowing,” said…
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