Affiliation:
1. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Faculty of Geography, Leninskie Gory, 1, 119991, Moscow, Russia
Abstract
Among the sustainable development goals set by the United Nations, one notable is “the production and consumption of low-cost and clean electricity”. One of the worldwide leaders in this field is Iceland, which in an effort to gain energy independence has reached a share of 99 % of the country’s total electricity production from renewable energy sources. At the same time, the share of wind energy resources is only 0.05 %, although the island territory has exceptional wind energy potential. It was not until 2018, that the government approved the realization of a large-scale project of establishing a network of wind farms as a part of a plan to lay a high-voltage cable along the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean to export electricity to Europe. However, a comprehensive geographical analysis of promising areas for the location of wind farms has yet to be carried out. In addition, when assessing territories across the world, the parameters usually taken into account are meteorological and economic only. Environmental factors and the degree of impact on nature are often disregarded. Thus, the aim of this work is the assessment of the territory of Iceland for the optimal placement of wind farms based on a set of indicators, including meteorological, geological and geomorphological, socio-economic and environmental parameters. The absence of such a comprehensive analysis for the territories of Iceland determines the relevance of the study.
The study resulted in a map, which shows that 10 % of the territory of Iceland is extremely favorable for construction of the network of wind power stations. This will help the government to ensure the economic benefits of selling energy to the UK and continental Europe without harming the environment. What is even more important, the method used to assess the potential of the island’s territories by various environmental parameters (quantitative and qualitative) can be applied not only to Iceland but also to any region of the world.
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