Iceland: Geothermal Energy Has Saved Massive Amount of CO2 Emissions

National Energy Authority: Carbon dioxide savings using geothermal in Iceland instead of oil amounts to 140 million tons over a century (4-traders)

“Geothermal Sunsets” by Sigurdur William Brynjarsson, Hafnarfjordur, Iceland. The area around Nesjavallavirkjun geothermal plant in Iceland.

The National Energy Authority (Orkustofnun) of Iceland has evaluated the CO2 savings of using geothermal instead of oil from 1914 through 2014. The accumulated savings are 140 million tons by utilizing geothermal instead of using oil for heating and production of electricity as is widely done abroad. Two thirds of the CO2 savings are the contribution of the Icelandic district heating utilities for the past century.

Last year the annual savings amounted to 7.5 million tons of CO2, 57% for electrical production and 43% for heating, by geothermal utilization instead of oil. For comparison, last year, the total emissions of anthropogenic CO2 were 3.5 million tons. The emissions thus would have been a total of 12 million tons of CO2 if Iceland did not utilize geothermal instead of oil. Even though such calculations and required assumptions may seem surreal, this is still the reality facing many countries.

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