The national power company Landsvirkjun is awaiting the final green light to raise two 0.9 megawatt windmills, as part of a project dating back to at least 2010.
As reported, Landsvirkjun announced the desire to raise “one or two” windmills to see how wind power might play out in Iceland, but their interest in wind power dates back farther than that.
A research group assembled by Landsvirkjun in 2010, working in conjunction with Icewind―a pan-Scandinavian team looking to develop wind power in the Nordic countries―has concluded that wind power is a very realistic option for Iceland. They believe that building wind turbines in the southwest would be the best option. Landsvirkjun then came to the conclusion that the best location would be near the Búrfellsvirkjun plant in southwest Iceland.
Vísir now reports that Landsvirkjun is waiting on the final permits to raise two 0.9 megawatt windmills. Ásdís Ólafsdóttir of Landsvirkjun says they are being set up on a trial basis.
There is another wind mill in Iceland, set up by Haraldur Magnússon, who successfully raised a 30 KW windmill on top of Hafnarfjall mountain, which immediately went into operation.
Óli Grétar Blöndal Sveinsson, head of research and development at Landsvirkjun, believes that if the experiment yields promising results, Iceland could catch up with other Nordic countries, with wind power comprising a significant proportion of our electricity. “Wind power is the one alternative energy source that has shown the most promise, and is growing the fastest in neighbouring countries,” he said.
“The greatest advantages are we live in a windy country,” he added. “The conditions are better [for wind power] here than in some other countries. Usage time is twice as long as the global average, there is plenty of open land, and the conditions are similar to the open sea.”
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