All heating in Akureyri arrives from geothermal hot water that is extracted from boreholes (100% renewable) and all electricity is produced with either hydropower or geothermal power (100% renewable). The latest powerplant was opened in 2018 in Glerá, called Glerárvirkjun 2. The energy output is 3,3 MW with annual production equivalent to the use of one electric car for each home in Akureyri.
Green funnel
The company, Orkey was founded in Akureyri in the beginning of 2007. Orkey produces biodiesel from used cooking oil that is collected from restaurants and industries in collection stations around the country. Orkey’s current production is mainly used to blend with vessel oil used by the local trawler fleet and to replace heavy oil in tarmac production. Next step, currently under development, is to blend it with diesel used by Akureyri’s public busses. The firm has already received positive feedback from petrol distributers to buy 1 million liters of biodiesel annually, which exceeds the raw material available for production, but equal to the plants full capacity after investments. Every household can drop off their used cooking oil in one of the 11 recycling stations in Akureyri.
Methane is currently produced from the old landfill in Akureyri and “harnessing” of the manure in the Eyjafjörður area is on the drawing board to further increase methane production to fuel 2-3000 cars per year.