3. Energy projects in Iceland, planning policy and regulatory context
3.1. Energy resources and consumption in Iceland
During the course of the 20th century Iceland transitioned from a nation heavily reliant on imports of coal and kerosene for heating and cooking to a largely self-reliant energy system, one which harnesses abundant domestic renewable energy resources. In recent years the demands of power-intensive industries (particularly aluminium smelting) have led to a considerable expansion in low-cost electricity production. Iceland has become the world's largest electricity producer per capita, generation that has almost entirely derived from renewable energy sources (OECD, 2014). Renewable energy production accounted for 99.9% of the 18,116 GWh of electricity generation in 2013 – 12,863 GWh (71.0%) from hydro power and 5245 GWh (28.9%) from geothermal, with very small contributions of 3 GWh and 5 Gwh from fossil fuels and onshore wind energy respectively (Orkustofnun, 2014). In 2013, Iceland consumed a total of 251.4 Petajoules (PJ) of energy, of which 217.0 PJ (86.3%) was generated domestically from renewable energy sources – 170.7 PJ (67.9%) from geothermal energy and 46.3 PJ (18.4%) from hydro power (Statistics Iceland, 2015). The remaining 34.4 PJ (13.7%) of energy consumption derived from imported fossil fuels, predominantly for use in motorised transport and ships – 30.4 PJ from oil (12.1%) and 4.0 PJ (1.6%) from coal