Iceland review - 2013, Page 83

ICELAND REVIEW 81
Forum in developing a new protocol to assess
the sustainability of hydropower in Iceland.
The large Kárahnjúkar hydropower project
in East Iceland has a lifetime of 100 years,
according to Óli Grétar Blöndal Sveinsson,
executive vice president of research and
development at Landsvirkjun. He says that
climate change would not necessarily have
an adverse impact on the Kárahnjúkar com-
plex. “There are indications that the lifetime
of the Hálslón reservoir [which is part of the
development] will greatly increase because
land will emerge where glaciers were, and
this land can accumulate silt. At the same
time, if the glacier disappears and the river
flow is more even, there will no longer be a
need for such a large reservoir,” he explains.
Nevertheless, there have already been
environmental ramifications related to the
Kárahnjúkar plant. For instance, both the
volume of water and amount of sediment
in the Lagarfljót river, downstream from the
plant, are greater than those predicted in
the models used for the EIA for the plant,
ENERGY
While geothermal is used to provide 66 percent of Iceland’s space heating, hydropower is the biggest source of electicity.