ENERGY IN ICELAND - Orkustofnun

oth by carrying out exploration for potential energy resources, and through directparticipation in developing energy production and distribution facilities.The utilization of hydropower and later geothermal power increased steadily in thepast century, to more than 70% of the primary energy use in Iceland, while fossilfuels must be imported.The days of peat are long gone; peat has not been produced in Iceland since the early1960s. Now, Icelanders keep warm with geothermal heat, run utilities on hydroelectricpower and geothermal steam, and drive cars fueled by imported petroleum.Electricity productionand the first power stationsElectric power was produced for the first time in Iceland in 1899, but the first hydropowerturbine began operation in 1904. The 9 kW generator was located in Hafnarfjordur(near Reykjavik) and served the innovator’s workshop – he was a carpenter– his household and a few additional houses, in effect being Iceland’s first rudimentarypower distribution network. In the following years, many small plants were builtand by 1934 there were 38 power stations with an installed capacity of about 5 MWtotal. The majority of these were hydropower stations, but a few of them were kerosenefuelled stations.During the following decades increased electrification, and development of the distributionsystem took place in the urban areas. The Electricity Act of 1946 providedfor the establishment of the State Electricity Authority (Raforkumalaskrifstofan),which was established in 1947. Among the responsibilities of the State ElectricityAuthority was to electrify the rural areas of the country and be responsible for hydrologicalsurveys. The development of the State Fertilizer Plant (Aburdarverksmidjan)in 1953 kicked off the power intensive industry, which has had a strong impact onthe development of electric power. In this period, the only other power intensive industrywas the State Cement Plant (Sementsverksmidja rikisins), which commencedoperations in 1958. Around 1960, an effort was made to research for potential hydropowerstations to boost the power intensive industry. In 1956 an assessment of thepossibilities of hydro power plants in two Icelandic rivers was made. As a result ofthat survey, the construction of the Burfell hydroelectric plant began in 1965, and by1972 the first glacial river power plant in Iceland was fully operational.The majority of the power was sold to the ISAL aluminum plant, the first of its kindin Iceland. Meanwhile, local development continued and an effort was made in themid-seventies to connect Iceland’s individual distribution systems. By 1984, all majorpower stations were connected to a central grid. By then every region had access tohydroelectric power, and diesel power stations, for the most part, became reserve11