Iceland is packed with inhospitable land filled with hot springs, volcanos, and ice. This creates a unique chance to harness the heat from the Earth to power homes and businesses. Seeing plenty of opportunity, Iceland began to utilize these resources, relying on the heat from hydrothermal vents, steam vents, etc. to produce sustainable and affordable means of producing energy.
Iceland’s Electricity Act of 2003, touches on all aspects of just sustainability. Improving quality of life by keeping costs low, and air clean(er) than most parts of the world (Agyeman, 2013; Geothermal, n.d). Meeting the needs of present and future generations by ensuring that everyone has access to sustainable energy where possible, protecting the future populations from worrying about the cost of being warm (Agyeman, 2013). This also achieves justice and equity, as it also ensures energy is a resource that is accessible but also affordable (Agyeman, 2013). Lastly, their energy production is sustainable, renewable and within the limits of one planet living (Agyeman, 2013). They do not overutilize resources they do not have, as they already have limited resources to work with. This means they have to be creative in the ways they can harness and use energy.
This goes without saying that there are confines to geothermal energy. There are issues with that, geothermal energy is very location specific (S. Olafsson, Personal Communication, April 1, 2024). Only some places would be able to utilize such resources, as no one can produce energy from energy that is not there. However, as with anything there are some downsides. These will be explored in other areas of this webcase.
See Works Cited post on the side panel for all references used.