Week 11: April 13-19

For those of us who were in Akureyri for Easter, brunch was held in Skjaldarvik complete with some great dishes, vodka, and egg dying. This was a great way to finish off the break.

Notice the pink egg has a wind turbine on it.




Geothermal energy, a technology that has almost become synonymous with Iceland, was the subject of this week’s course. The significant usage of underground thermal energy to heat homes and provide electricity, combined with large hydropower projects, gives Iceland the distinction of having one of the highest percentages of renewable energy in the world (I think there is a small island somewhere in the tropics that burns a lot of biomass that just beats Iceland to number one).

It is easy to get the impression that one of the reasons for this is that the people here are just more eco-conscious than most of the rest of the world. Although this may have something to do with it, the fact is that Iceland just chose what was cheapest and it happens that this was geothermal energy. In fact, Iceland is terribly inefficient in terms of usage in most cases and even has an affinity for monster 4WD vehicles like this one here:


My point is not to take anything away from Iceland, but rather to point out that they, like the rest of the world, do what costs less. My hope is that the rest of the world will eventually realize that the cost of coal and gas is much higher than what is paid to the utilities and at the pump. The problem is we just don’t know how to quantify the external costs and long term impacts and we have problems charging for things that we can’t count. But as renewables continue to develop, they will become more cost effective and will eventually compete with fossil fuels, hopefully sooner than later.

In any case, this week’s course was great at showing how Iceland developed one of its most abundant natural resources and became a leader in the field. We even were able to take a trip to the geothermal wells providing the hot water and electricity for Akureyri.

Of course, it wasn't entirely business:


This week also had some interesting non-school developments. One of which was some homemade fireworks. Nothing too fancy, but enough to keep us entertained.


As you can see from the picture, the weather was less than perfect. Of course, this was a week when a couple from Spain came to visit and this type of weather has been typical when anyone travels to see us here!

The residents of Skjaldarvik were lucky to have some great Hungarian cake on Sunday while studying for the exam on Monday.

Delicious.