“Greenarea”
There are many countries with beautiful scenery in the world, but do all these countries use their beautiful nature and natural resources in the correct ways, taking into consideration the environmental effects and health effects? Probably not.
Iceland is a country famous for its exquisite nature. It gets all the attention whenever pictures revealing the scenery from that beautiful place is shown anywhere.
The highly volcanic island, Iceland, has many geothermal fields, and more than 600 natural hot springs. You are probably thinking: what could Iceland do with its geothermal fields?
Well, it is using them to produce electricity. 13% of Iceland’s electricity comes from geothermal power. Since the beginning of the 20th century, Ice land started generating electricity from hydro-electric sources. 87% of its electricity comes from hydro power, and of course, the country’s mountains and glaciers are perfect for hydro-electric generation.
So 100% of the electricity produced ij the country of the “blue lagoon” comes from renewable sources.
According to the “Renewable Energy” website, “natural conditions in Iceland provide a theoretical capacity of 64 TWh of geothermal electricity of which 25-30 TWh can economically and feasibly be exploited”.
The website adds that “Currently Iceland has harnessed under 7 TWh of this potential, and so in time could become an exporter of electricity to mainland Europe or the USA”.
The environmental and health benefits as provided by the “Union of concerned scientists”, “The air and water pollution emitted by coal and natural gas plants is linked to breathing problems, neurological damage, heart attacks, and cancer. Replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy has been found to reduce premature mortality and lost workdays, and it reduces overall healthcare costs”.
The website adds that “The aggregate national economic impact associated with these health impacts of fossil fuels is between $361.7 and $886.5 billion, or between 2.5 percent and 6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP)”.
