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Geothermal vegetables from Iceland – exporting geothermal energy

Geothermal vegetables from Iceland – exporting geothermal energy Fridheimar greenhouse, Iceland (source: flickr/ Christophe PINARD, creative commons)
Alexander Richter 23 Aug 2017

Vegetables grown in geothermal energy powered and heated greenhouses in Iceland, could soon be sold in stores in Denmark and Germany, in a new export push by Icelandic greenhouse operators.

Likely no other country is using geothermal energy to the extent of Iceland.  While domestic utilisation for power generation and heating is described a lot, exporting that energy has only recently received the attention in the discussions on a possible cable connection to Europe that would see the export of geothermal electricity from Iceland.

But it now seems vegetables could be the new “geothermal” export of Iceland, as reported in Iceland Magazine earlier this month.

Icelandic geothermal greenhouse operators are now preparing a major export push for their vegetables and Icelandic vegetables could hit the supermarket shelves in Denmark later this year.

In an interview with Icelandic paper Morgunbladid, Gunnlaugur Karlsson, Managing Director of the Horticultural Association, confirms these efforts. There is a keen interest in Denmark for traditional horticultural species, especially cucumbers and tomatoes from Iceland, and there are now preparations underway for an export push  for the possible sale of Icelandic vegetables in Denmark and even in Germany.

So consumers in these two countries might soon be able to buy cucumbers, tomatoes and other vegetables grown in geothermal heated and powered greenhouses in Iceland.

The first stores that could sell Icelandic “geothermal” vegetables could be the IRMA markets in Denmark, belonging to Coop Group, which currently has a 40% share of the market in Denmark.

There have been various efforts to grow greenhouse operations aimed at exporting vegetables from Iceland over the years, but these effort now seem to be the most concrete in a long time.

Source: Iceland Magazine, Mbl.is