The Hydrogen Generation: Lessons from Iceland's Bold Energy Experiment
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 12.20.05
The Walrus is sort of a new Canadian version of Atlantic Monthly. This month they cover the conversion of Iceland to a hydrogen economy (covered in treehugger earlier) Icelanders do have some advantages- sitting on a volcano, they have the hydro and geothermal capacity to make six times as much electricity as they need and can use it to electrolyze water to make hydrogen. Other countries with similar advantages are ignoring them- talking about Canada, an Icelandic official rolls her eyes and says "You have solar! You have wind! You have Hydro! Many countries have geothermal power too, but they are waiting for the world to run out of oil before they do anything about it!" Back in Iceland, they have Ballard fuel cell buses running now and are creating an infrastructure of hydrogen filling stations, and plan to be oil-free by 2050. (although we all may be oil-free by then whether we plan for it or not). Worth reading but not yet online. ::The Walrus
The Walrus is a new Canadian magazine for people whose lips don't move when they read.
Yeah, that kind of attitude will really win you fans.
Why didn't you just say "The Walrus is like a Canadian Harper's" and let people draw their own conclusions?
LA: You have a point. There is no need for me to to rude.
The comment about us waiting for the world to run out of oil is so right on. The geothermal resources in Yosemite National Park and its environs go a long way to matching the geothermal energy in all of iceland. Of course, transporting the energy is a problem, but it's not competitive with oil right now.
Congress should forget about a grandstanding "windfall tax" of the oil companies and just stop spending billions to subsidize them while oil is over $50/barrel. They will keep exploring at that price with or without subsidies.
Mark Brandon
Sustainable Log
News and Views for Socially Responsible Investors
Please Mark, at a time when environmentalists (myself included) are fighting to keep oil drilling out of far-off and rarely visited ANWR, do you really think we should be proposing drilling geothermal wells in our nation's first and most treasured national park? I fervently hope that ANWR, Yellowstone and the rest of our last preserved parks and wildspaces stay offlimits to invasive energy exploration and extraction.
That being said, there are significant geothermal resources elsewhere throughout the Western United States that don't happen to lie underneath a national park. The EERE has geothermal resource map here.