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The Compass: Green Energy: Some Inconvenient Truths : Green energy: Iceland

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Green energy: Iceland

24/08/2022 GMT

Green Energy: Some Inconvenient Truths

BBC World Service - The Compass, Green Energy: Some Inconvenient Truths, Green energy: Iceland

How is Iceland is embracing the challenges of getting to a net zero future?

For over 100 years, Iceland has produced renewable energy from geo-thermal and hydro power to heat its homes and power industry. Iceland harnesses the volcanic hot water under the earth’s crust and the energy from damming its plentiful rivers and waterfalls that run through the island. 

It produces five times more green energy than its population needs. But decisions Iceland has made in how best to use this surplus energy and the environmental and moral impact on its landscape and population have sparked controversy. There have been protests about the international aluminium companies; heavy users of electricity and the more recent advent of data-processing centres like the bitcoin and crypto-currency companies based there. These companies sell their green credentials to customers while consuming all the country’s excess power. When should Iceland say enough is enough?  

Presenter: Allan Little
Producer: Anna Horsbrugh-Porter
Editor: Susan Marling
A Just Radio production for BBC World Service

(Photo: Allan Little visits a deep drilling project in Iceland. Credit: Anna Horsbrugh-Porter)

The Compass: Green Energy: Some Inconvenient Truths 

Green Energy: Some Inconvenient Truths 

Allan Little investigates the ‘inconvenient truths’ of transitioning to green energy

Few issues are more important globally than our ability to transition to green energy. Yet the path to securing energy from sustainable sources is not an easy one.  In a four-part series for The Compass, Allan Little investigates the ‘inconvenient truths’ of transition in places from Iceland to Chile and the Democratic Republic of Congo.  He reports on factors that hinder the green revolution, including the scramble for essential minerals such as lithium for batteries, the environmental damage that huge wind farms may cause, the vast cost of new infrastructures and, counter-intuitively, when countries have a surplus of green energy, how can they use it best?

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