With a combination of breathtaking scenery and incredible architecture, the city of Reykjavík is also one of the greenest cities in the world.
Reykjavík acquires very little of its primary energy from fossil fuel sources, as most of the city’s energy comes from geothermal and other natural and renewable sources. With a focus on long-term sustainability, Reykjavík is attempting to significantly reduce its carbon emissions and become highly independent from using fossil fuels by 2050.
Here’s how Reykjavík is keeping it green:
Geothermal Energy
Roughly 95% of heating in the city of Reykjavík is provided by geothermal heating. The city’s geothermal energy is generated from geothermal power plants that utilize the naturally occurring steam from hot springs, geysers and even volcanoes.
“Geothermal heat originally comes from the Earth’s core, where temperatures may reach 4,000 – 7,000°C. This heat can come to the surface in the form of hot water that seeps through fissures, cracks and permeable rock. A number of countries and continents, including Iceland, sit over terrain with a lot of these fissures and cracks, allowing them to easily take advantage of these naturally occurring heat supplies,” according to the Danish Architecture Center.
The use of geothermal energy has helped the city to significantly reduce demand and consumption of electricity and is extremely eco-friendly, generating no emissions or pollution. It’s also cost effective as it has helped the city and its inhabitants save significantly on electricity costs.
Between 1944 and 2006, the geothermal energy in Reykjavík has prevented an estimated 110 million tons of CO2 emissions from entering the atmosphere and currently saves about 4 million tons from being emitted every year, as reported by the website Blue & Green Tomorrow.
If you’re interested in traveling to an amazing and eco-friendly city, Reykjavík, Iceland, is a great place to visit! Its natural geothermal activity not only helps citizens create clean, natural energy, but it also heats their world-famous, relaxing “Blue Lagoon” geothermal spa, rich with minerals said to revitalize the skin.
What do you think about this incredible eco-friendly city? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below—we’d love to hear from you!
Resources:
Green City Times: Green City: Reykjavik (Renewable Energy Mecca)
PR Newswire: Iceland – Leading the World Towards a 100% Sustainable Energy Society
DAC & CITIES: Reykjavik: The ground heats the city
Blue & Green Tomorrow: Sustainability in the city: Reykjavik, Iceland
About Education: Geography of Reykjavik, Iceland
This website, www.NorwexRace.com, is part of the Norwex Movement. RACE stands for Race Against Chemicals in the Environment, and NorwexRace.com exists to help people everywhere create safer havens in their homes by raising awareness about planetary issues that affect us all.
Over the next few months, you may see some changes in how we talk about this website.
Starting October 30, the name of the site will change from www.NorwexRace.com to www.NorwexMovement.com. The old web address, or URL, will still work, but it will redirect you to the new URL.
Would love to go visit that spa!!
very nice
This is a country I would like to visit with my daughter. It’s on my “bucket list” but she would be too young to have one now, lol.
I think this is great! I wish more areas of the US had access to this type of energy source.
I very much like the name change, Norwex Movement seems more deliberate, planned, and intentional. <3
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