PowerSwitch

Here is something interesting from Sweden:

http://www.thelocal.se/article.php?ID=2 ... 330523ed34

just this bit in a PO contect:

As for the environment, the government declared its intention to end Sweden's dependency on fossil fuels by 2020. The use of electricity from renewable energy sources will increase by 15TWh over the next ten years.

I'm moving to Sweden!

I wont belive it till I've seen it.

Hahaha! That guy is hallucinating. Not entirely uncommon in his case though. But since there are enough of rightout stupid Swedes, he manage to get elected again and again.

It is not unthinkable that Sweden indeed WILL be independent of fossils in 2020, but it will not be because of the actions of the political system, it will be because of depletion.

Hasn't Iceland already made a similar commitment?

beev wrote:Hasn't Iceland already made a similar commitment?

Not just a commitment, they're actually *doing* it.

Iceland is unique. It has geothermal energy coming out if its ears, more than it will ever need. It's the only country on the planet which is actively pursuing a transition to a 'Hydrogen economy'.

Shell opened the worlds first Hydrogen filling station for road vehicles in Iceland a couple of years ago. ( I think - not sure of the date)

Once the Icelanders have ramped up production to cover all their own needs they want to export excess Hydrogen to less fortunately endowed parts of the world.

The problem is safe bulk storage and transport of Hydrogen. The technology doenst exist yet. As far as difficulty of handling, storage and transport is concerned, Hydrogen makes LPG look like pile of sand.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/n ... 208013.stm

OK, from an energy point of view, Iceland sound bloody great.

However, where the hell do they get their food from??? Surely they aren't self-sufficient when it comes to food and just about everything else (except energy)

They grow bananas in greenhouses. If they are not full self-sufficient I would imagine if the can grow bananas then they can grow whatever they like and become self-sufficient if needed.

GavinT wrote:OK, from an energy point of view, Iceland sound bloody great.

However, where the hell do they get their food from???

They are surrounded by cod, and like the New Zealanders outnumbered by sheep. They also eat the odd Minke whale for 'scientific' purposes.

A very 'viking' sort of diet.

I imagine they also get apples and kiwi fruit from New Zealand and green beans from Zimbabwe like we do

Okay, now I am moving to Iceland.

And they read more books per year per person on average than any other nation worldwide!


Abundant geothermal energy AND Halldor Laxness, what more could you want from a country??!!

About Sweden. Did the math some nights ago.

If Sweden would committ 100% of the crop lands to produce biofuels (biodiesel or ethanol), we would be able to get about 35% of our current consumption of transport liquids. 100% is just stupid, we would not get ANYTING to eat at all. Something reasonable but still extreme would be to convert 25% of the crops to transport fluids. Then we would have to reduce our meat consumption to 25%-50% of what we eat today, but we would only get some 8-9% of our transport fluids. Considering that the agricultural sector would need close to 100% of todays needs, there would only be some 3-5% of todays consumption left to sell...

Instead of buing 100 liters of petrol per month for my car, I would be able to buy... 3-5 liters. Well, that would be enough for my chainsaw...

They don't just have a lot of geothermal energy, There is also a lot of hydro. Electricity was the cheapest in the world decades ago so a large part of the alluminium industry moved there. Someone once considered a cable to Scotland but dropped the idea when they understood transmission line losses.
Try learning Icelandic before you commit to emigrating.