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Iceland is an unusual place. Its electricity grid is not widely connected to other countries. It has lots of geothermal energy. And it has been working hard on decarbonising (removing greenhouse gas emissions as close to zero as possible) all of its energy supply.

How far had it gone by 2012 in decarbonising its whole energy system? I'm thinking of the whole thing: electricity, heat, transport, industrial uses, the lot. I'm interested in what it's decarbonised, and how: so "how much?" is part of it, but "how?" is the larger part.

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  • This is about environmentalism more than sustainability. The question is really interesting but as phrased I do not think it belongs here.
    – user141
    Commented Feb 11, 2013 at 15:11
  • I created a meta question About environmental questions versus sustainability questions here.
    – user141
    Commented Feb 11, 2013 at 15:40

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The best source of information I could find was this: http://www.tradingeconomics.com/iceland/energy-use-kg-of-oil-equivalent-per-capita-wb-data.html

It looks like about 80% of energy in Iceland comes from alternative sources (primarily geothermal). However according to http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/ene_oil_con_percap-energy-oil-consumption-per-capita they still used more oil in 2007 per capita than the US does. My reading of this suggests that Iceland has not made strides in reducing overall oil dependence for things like transportation, although they have made strong gains just about everywhere else.

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  • Looks to me like the bulk of their electricity is from hydroelectric (12 out of 15TWh), not geothermal.
    – Highly Irregular
    Commented Apr 8, 2013 at 9:54

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