A few pictures & stories from Iceland

Using warmth in the cold.

Hey Volties! As you know, I went to Iceland a few weeks ago. I was there at the invitation of Business Iceland, a public-private organization that (among other things) boosts the visibility of Iceland’s sustainable business community. They paid my way and shuttled me around to talk to various companies. Everyone was extremely kind and competent and professional — compliments all around.

There’s no way I’ll ever be able to pod about more than a fraction of it (though check out my Iceland-overview pod), so I thought I’d share a mini-travelogue with you subscribers.

Here, just for scene-setting, is a typical Iceland landscape: volcanic rock as far as the eye can see, covered in a thin layer of moss (that apparently takes decades to grow, so don’t step on it!), with a geothermal power plant in the background.

On our first full day, we visited the Svartsengi geothermal power plant, owned by HS Orka, Iceland’s biggest energy company. The coolest thing about it is the Resource Park that has more or less organically grown up around it, consisting of companies drawing on the plant’s power (or water, or steam) for their own innovations.

Here’s a slide that captures the range of companies in the park, from e-fuels to biotech to aquaculture:

I love how much cleverness has gone into stretching and maximizing the use of geothermal resources.