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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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Costing the Earth

Factual: Science & Nature: Nature & Environment

Fresh ideas from the sharpest minds working toward a cleaner, greener planet

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Costing the Earth: From Iceland with Love

From Iceland with Love

05/04/2016

BBC Radio 4 - Costing the Earth, From Iceland with Love

Tom Heap finds out how Iceland could solve Britain's energy crisis.

The Ice Link could plug the UK into Iceland's cheap and renewable energy, but it may come at a cost to pristine landscape. Tom Heap visits the land of fire and ice to find out why.

The Ice Link interconnector would link Iceland's cheap and carbon free electricity from hydro and geothermal to the UK. It could provide the equivalent power of a medium sized power plant through a copper cable laid under the sea between the two countries. Crucially the power would be reliable and available when other renewable sources such as wind and solar are not. However, as Tom Heap discovers when he visits the land of fire and ice, environmental campaigners like Bjork fear that this green solution for UK homes could create a need to develop into the pristine wilderness of Iceland's Highlands. Should we pursue our global climate goals even if it has the potential to affect untouched and fragile landscape elsewhere? Tough decisions for Iceland and for us all. 
Producer: Helen Lennard.

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