Water, energy, fish, tourism (and music!): few words about Icelandic economy and resources

© triskel   Streets of Reykjavik

Today I'm in quite melancholic mood for the first time.. as it's still not possible to go hunting for the norther lights...

The weather and solar activity are so capricious these days.. 

And it's so windy outside, the air is cool and fresh..

I went to talk to director of the primary school that is in my close neighbourhood, Austurbearskóli. Apparently, they don't need any new teacher or social assistant at the moment. That's a pity, I left my CV in case the situation changes.

Yep, the weather.. something melancholic is in the air tonight..
So I prefer to stay at home in the evening and just discovered Icelandic group (to be more precise: female quartet) which music perfectly suits my mood today. It's peaceful and monotonous but there are some cheerful sounds in the deeper level of their music. It's called Amiina and I'm listening to their first album 'Kurr' (2007) at the moment. Their music is made with a great number of instruments. It contains elements of minimalistic style, contemporary classical, ambient, and electronic loops. Just try out this song from their latest album 'Puzzle' (2010) with nice animation, called 'What are we waiting for'.

Exactly! So what are we waiting for..? :)))

© triskel   Icelandic fish

 
Last weekend I had some talks about Icelandic economy with Icelanders and some of them are complaining that the life is hard in Iceland, politicians are stupid and incompetent and the money you earn is not enough to suit all your needs.. Come on, what can I say? I come from Poland and I cannot agree with this kind of statements. The quality of  life here is much better then in Poland and people have more trust and are much happier then in any other European country!!! For sure, it has deteriorated since the economic downturn in 2008 but Iceland was the first country to find a solution how to go over the crisis. Here you have the Polish text about Icelandic economy: 'Pozwólcie bankom upaść'

© triskel   Icelandic fish

And some insights from international press. Just have a look at the opinon of journalist from 'Bloomberg': 'You can say that again. Iceland’s approach was the polar opposite of the U.S. and Europe, which rescued their banks and did little to aid indebted homeowners. Although lessons drawn from Iceland, with just 320,000 people and an economy based on fishing, aluminium production and tourism, might not be readily transferable to bigger countries, its rebound suggests there’s more than one way to recover from a financial meltdown.'  For those who are interested about the details, the whole article can be found here 'Fighting Recession the Icelandic Way'.

© triskel   Harpa and the sea

Iceland has a strong base in natural resources when taking into account the population size:  one in 84 of fish caught worldwide are caught here and in addition, Icelandic hydro power and geothermal resources enable it to produce electricity 5 times bigger then the requirements of the local population!!!! 

Indeed, the electricity is so cheap here and cold and hot water can be running out of the tap endlessly as we use only 5% of the water resources in Iceland! So water is not at all a scarce good here. What's more, you can drink cold water just straight from the tap and it's both healthy and delicious! Abundant just like in paradise :) And the hot water has a specific sulphuric smell.. yeah, it takes some time to get accustom to this natural and ecological way of hot water supply :)

© triskel   Harpa Concert Hall

And yes,  it's always warm indoors!!! The abundance of energy is really impressive. Holly Wikipedia says that: About 85 percent of total primary energy supply in Iceland is derived from domestically produced renewable energy sources. In 2011, geothermal energy provided about 65 percent of this energy, the share of hydropower was 20 percent, and the fossil fuels only 15 percent. In 2013, Iceland also became a producer of wind energy. The main use of geothermal energy is for space heating with the heat being distributed to buildings through extensive district-heating systems. About 85% of all houses in Iceland are heated with geothermal energy. Renewable energy provides almost 100 percent of electricity production, with about 75 percent coming from hydropower and 25 percent from geothermal power.

© triskel  Reykjavik

And there will be around 1 million tourists visiting Iceland in 2014, though a lot of work in touristic sector is going to be done!

So there is no need to be worry about..


Góða nótt, sleep well!