Fræðaþing landbúnaðarins - 06.02.2004, Blaðsíða 129

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• Remote agricultural areas with insufficient energy infrastructure, where
powerline blackouts are not uncommon during adverse winter weather
conditions,
• Areas with relatively intensive farm forestry operations or where low input
energy crops (such as willow) are grown, and
• Soil reclamation endeavors.
Expanding bioenergy systems to landscape-scale forestry projects in Iceland could
also be useful in meeting recent govemment initiatives to increase forest cover in
Iceland. For these reforestation projects to be viable, they need to provide economic
retums to farmers in the short-term. By linking the afforestation programs to
electricity production, they have increased potential in becoming sources of income
generation. Even though -80% of homes in Iceland use geothermal resources for
heating, the other -20% of the homes are predominantly mral homes where central
heating systems are expensive to maintain. So the development of farm forestry
projects that would provide energy at a lower cost to mral communities and the added
incentive of early economic retum from forests could stimulate the adoption of
forestry projects, making forest ownership a desirable option. Furthermore, the
deregulation of the energy market in Europe (including Iceland) will result in the
development of new agriculture practices and potentially offer farmers the option of
becoming ‘energy’ farmers (someone who sells surplus energy to the grid) in addition
to growing food crops.
Small-scale bioenergy systems could be an economic tool to aid mral development in
Iceland, especially since the Icelandic govemment has decided to pursue reforestation
as evidenced by the passing of a law (1999 nr. 56 19. March) stipulating the planting
of new forests to cover at least five percent of the land area below 400 m elevation
within the next 40 years. This law will result in approximately 2 180 km' of land
being planted into new forests. If the cost of stand establishment is estimated to be
120 thousand ÍKR/ha (Suðurlandsskógar 2003), the total cost of establishment is more
than 26 billon Icelandic ÍKR of which 97% is provided by the Icelandic government.
Furthermore, the State will provide additional funds for the first thinning of these
forests at an estimated cost of -15 billion ÍKR (assuming thinning costs to be 70
thousand ÍKR/ha [Suðurlandsskógar 2003]). The major incentive for enacting this
new law was to stimulate planting of forests to provide stability and economic retums
to mral communities.
Establishment of new forests for wood production under challenging growing
conditions is an expensive endeavour. It is therefore economically strategic to
maximize retums from farm forestry projects in Iceland. Early thinnings for
bioenergy purposes would be an ideal solution to increase the value of these forests.
Similarly, bioenergy uses of biomass could potentially subsidize the cost of land
reclamation projects in the country.
A growing number of countries, including Iceland, have committed to accelerate the
development of hydrogen energy technologies in order to improve their energy,
environment and economic security. The commitment of the Icelandic govemment
and others, such as the U.S., the EC, UK, Canada, Australia, Brazil, France, Germany,
índia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Norway and Russia, is an indication that the global
community shares a common interest in advanced research and development
supporting the commercial use of hydrogen and fuel-cell technologies. Moving