In the autumn of 2008, Iceland's three biggest banks collapsed in less than
a week. Their assets had been worth nine times the country's GDP, and the
whole nation stood on the brink of bankruptcy. But long before that, this
small Nordic country had already pulled off a more remarkable comeback:
today almost all of Iceland's electricity comes from hydropower and
geothermal energy, and about 90% of homes are heated by the earth.

We start with Reykjavik's first geothermal heating in the early 20th
century, then follow how the oil crises of 1973 and 1979 pushed Iceland to
turn the resources under its feet into a whole energy infrastructure. We
break down what geothermal and hydropower each do, why cheap green power
tied Iceland to aluminium and exports, and why Iceland can't simply sell
its electricity to Europe.

Iceland isn't a "zero-emissions" country: transport, fishing boats and
aviation still burn a lot of fuel. What it has really done is break its
dependence on fossil fuels for electricity and heating. Natural resources
decide what choices a country has; what changes its fate is how it uses
them.

Chapters
0:00 Intro
1:14 Chapter 1 | Surviving Winter Without Oil
2:44 Chapter 2 | Two Oil Crises, One Energy Revolution
4:14 Chapter 3 | Volcanoes Aren't Just for Tourists
5:54 Chapter 4 | How Cheap Energy Changed an Economy
7:37 Chapter 5 | Has Iceland Solved Its Energy Problem?

Main sources
- National Energy Authority of Iceland (Orkustofnun): history of geothermal
heating, 2020 electricity and heating statistics
- Statistics Iceland: physical energy flow accounts (PEFA), 2024
- European Environment Agency (EEA): Iceland energy and emissions data
- IMF: 2008 Stand-By Arrangement for Iceland, size of the banking system
- Iceland Financial Supervisory Authority (FME): October 2008 bank takeovers
- Directorate of Labour (Vinnumálastofnun): registered unemployment
- Photos: Wikimedia Commons, by OddurBen, Anthony Quintano, Kevstan, Rémih,
Michal Klajban, Mokslo Sriuba, Helgi Halldórsson and others, CC BY / CC
BY-SA

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