CELL Field Trip: Hydro Power, Gulfoss waterfall, and Geiser hot spring

On Tuesday, November 13th we visited the Burfell Hydro Power station located at the head of Thjorsardalur Valley in south Iceland. Over 70% of Iceland’s electricity is generated from hydro and geothermal power – both of which are renewable and carbon-free. This small island nation leads the world in the percentage of electricity generated from renewable sources. As Iceland produces far more electricity than it needs, it exports its excess power by importing electricity intensive businesses, such as aluminum smelters. Bringing the aluminum industry to Iceland, however, has been quite controversial. Iceland is currently trying to attract “server farms” (high tech data bases like Yahoo and Microsoft) - businesses that require large amounts of electricity, but don’t adversely impact the environment. This innovative thinking will diversify Iceland’s economy, while attracting more environmentally friendly businesses.

After visiting the hydro power plant, we visited Geiser – the original geothermal hot spring from which the name “geiser” originated. Later, we visited the impressive Gulfoss waterfall – perhaps the most photographed waterfall in Iceland. Below are several student descriptions of our field trip.

Dave S: The trip to the Burfell hydropower station was one that I had been looking forward to the whole semester. There’s a great deal of controversy over hydropower in the United States. Is it truly a “green” source of power? Surely, it’s renewable, but what of the damage it can cause to ecosystems? The interesting thing about Iceland is that it doesn’t have nearly as many ecosystems to damage as the US. There
is also controversy in Iceland over making reservoirs out of once free-flowing rivers. Our speaker from Burfell told us that the largest reservoir that had been built was only flooding a lava field with minimal vegetation and almost zero life... All this talk of hydropower’s impact made for an interesting discovery in my mind: there really is no truly impact-free source of power. The problem with fossil fuels is obvious. Solar power generally uses mined silicon… Picking an energy source is really just picking (the lesser of several evils). Certainly, there are better options than others. Is this just a necessary risk involved with us getting the energy we need to afford the lifestyles we live? Does our growing need for energy justify the destruction of ecosystems? I don’t know the answer to these questions. All I know is that even if these “green” options aren’t ideal, they are miles beyond reliance on dirty fossil fuels, which not only come with environmental costs of mining, but also have that whole nasty “greenhouse gas” business to come along with them. In the meantime,
while I ponder these questions and wonder if there is another way, I will continue
to push for the phasing out of fossil fuels to switch to technologies like wind, solar, and hydro. They may not be perfect, but they’re the best we’ve got.

Ian: We began our last field trip with a visit to the local Búrfell Hydropower station. This station is owned and operated by the Icelandic power giant Landvirkjun. We were met by the head of public relations and received a thorough lecture on the hydro power industry in Iceland. Throughout this lecture I fluctuated back and forth between the logistical and moral vision of the power company. Iceland already produces far more energy than they need to power their society. They are able to export power by importing foreign business investments (international aluminum smelting businesses that are attracted to Iceland because of their cheap, "green" power) . Eighty percent of all the energy produced in Iceland is sold to energy intensive industry. I was very concerned with the rate of expansion of the power facilities. They currently have 7 hydro stations along Iceland's largest river with another 3 in the works. Also the new power station in the North provides a whopping 700 mega watts dedicated to aluminum smelters. There is also talk of many more geothermal stations being constructed. I am afraid Iceland has caught the bug of capitalistic expansion, and the effects have the potential to be severely detrimental to their environment. We have learned how sensitive Iceland's natural environment is and susceptible to human impacts… Landvirkjun is also making some very impressive environmental decisions. They have made the commitment, for example, that (they will not sell any additional power to aluminum smelters.) They are also pursuing a vision to sell power to “server farms.” I found this idea to be a perfect example of transcending industry into the future. Server farms allow Iceland to continue economic growth through their export of power while moving away from carbon intensive industry such as aluminum smelting.

Kelly: I’ve always thought of hydropower as an all-encompassing “bad” way (environmentally) to harness energy. This thinking changed during our field trip to the Búrfell Hydropower Station. Our presenter, while he was one-sided (pro hydropower), gave us an excellent overview of not only hydropower in Iceland, but also the many issues surrounding hydropower development in Iceland. No matter what we do as humans, we will always have an impact on this earth. No matter how we harvest our energy, we will always have an impact. The question then becomes, what kind of impact do we want to have? And, how can we minimize our impact? It seems that within the expansion of the hydropower stations along the river of the Búrfell hydropower station, Landsvirkjun is considering these questions. But the next question I come to is, why are we expanding our power generation? Iceland is already surpassing the energy needs for the people of the country, but with such a vast supply of available power, it seems the power companies cannot stop there. It’s easy to criticize Landsvirkjun for agreeing to build enormous power stations solely for the energy needs of polluting industries, but our presenter gave a different view. He argued that since Iceland has such large resources of “green” energy, it is their responsibility to offer that energy to energy-intensive industries that would otherwise be utilizing more polluting energy (such as coal power stations elsewhere). This is an interesting way to approach this issue. But I wonder if the amount of knowledge and man-power that goes into creating massive power plants were put into creating more effective recycling systems, would we need more aluminum smelters at all? It’s important to look past the energy-issue and consider why we are demanding more energy and ask what can change there… Energy will never be a simple black and white issue. As long as we demand energy we need to be aware that its production will happen in someone’s backyard. No energy will be entirely impact free, but we can attempt to come closer and closer while also analyzing why we are demanding more energy.