Kristín, Hjödda, Inga, Elva 23.10.2002 1 Orkufyrirlestur

Kristín, Hjödda, Inga, Elva 24.5.2018 1 0c7afa8c8c5f3309242542d05519b89b.doc

Power production

We are going to introduce to you our power production in Iceland. So we will mostly talk about how we produce energy and about the largest companies that do so.

Electricity was first introduced in Iceland in 1904 when a small stream in the town of Hafnarfjördur, near Reykjavík, was harnessed with the building of an initial plant of 9 kilowatts. During the following 30 years eletric supply utilities were established in most of the larger towns and villages.

Iceland is a higly electrified country. Some 99,9% of the population (which is 280.000) have access to electricity from public supply utilities and the remaining 0,1% living on remote farms, run their own generators. Total gross consumption of electricity has now climbed to approximately 17,400 kilowatts per hour per capita. Currently, Iceland ranks second in the world in consumption of electricity per capita, after Norway.

Our Energy Resources

Iceland has an abundant energy potential in the form of geothermal energy and hydropower. About 85% of all housing in the country is heated with geothermal energy, the remainder being heated with electricity. Most of the country's electricity (93%) is generated using hydropower, the remainder being based on geothermal power. Only 10-15% of the technically feasible hydropower has been harnessed, and only a fraction of the geothermal potential available for electricity production. So you see we have more than enough of electric power.

As we said before we use water to make electricity. Hydroelectrical power plants use the power from the water in the rivers. In powerstations, the water runs through whirls that runs generators which turn the speed of energy into electric power.

Verzlunarskóli Íslands Kristín, Hjödda, Inga, Elva 24.5.2018 2 0c7afa8c8c5f3309242542d05519b89b.doc

One of the main companies that produce hydroelectric power is Rarik, a company that distributes and sells energy. It was founded in April the 2nd, 1946. Rarik owns and runs 9 hydroelectric power plants all over the country with a total capacity of 19 Megawatts, and several diesel plants with a capacity of 40 Megawatts.

Landsvirkjun, or the The National Power Company, was established in July the 1st, 1965. The main objective of Landsvirkjun is to construct and operate power plants and main transmission lines and to sell electric power wholesale to local utilities and industrial firms, in so far as the local utilities do not act as intermediaries in such sales. The company now possesses an inventory of four fully-designed power projects. They comprise the Fljótsdalur power project (210 Megawatts) in the east and in the Thjórsá river basin, the Sultartangi power project (125 Megawatts), the Vatnsfell power project (130 Megawatts) and the extension of the Búrfell power station (100 Megawatts).

Búrfellsvirkjun

We would like to mention one power station that’s called Búrfellsvirkjun, which belongs to Landsvirkjun (which we talked about earlier) and it´s Iceland´s largest power station. It´s located in south Iceland. It´s layout consist of a dam on the river Thorsja. In Búrfell you can see the whirls working and you can actually get to stand in it and see how it really works! Though Búrfell is our largest power station there can be problems because of the extreme cold in the winter. The dam can often be clogged because of large ice that flows down the river, so there’s always a guard standing in a tower to check if there’s ice coming. They call the tower “The temple of fear” and that is because it’s very large and it shakes a lot during a storm and of the large icebergs that hit it.

We think Icelanders are extremely lucky to have so many energy sources when we see the other countries around us are trying as hard as they can to save energy. We are still building up power stations and aluminum plants which is a major issue in Iceland today.

Verzlunarskóli Íslands