Iceland’s produces virtually all its electrical power by its geothermal and hydropower resources, and a large portion of district heating is through geothermal heat. The country has an independent energy system and is currently not connected to mainland Europe or other countries. Majority of the electrical power produced is used by energy demanding industries such as aluminium and other metals and silica. Increase in demand, and foreseeable changes in energy sources for transport need to be addressed in the coming years. Wind Energy is currently not in the energy portfolio of the country but may play a role in these changes. In this talk, I will discuss the wind power technology, the wind resource on a global and local scale, and some exciting wind farm projects. In addition, the energy system in Iceland will be discussed, current challenges it is facing and the outlook towards implementing wind energy.

Dr. Armann Gylfason is the chair of the department of engineering at Reykjavik University, Iceland. He received his PhD in Aerospace Engineering from Cornell University in 2006. His current research is on the one hand concerned with challenges in wind energy, such as gusts and fouling through simple wind tunnel measurements, and on the other hand with measurements in convective flow systems and expanding the traditional Lagrangian Particle Tracking methodology to simultaneous detection of temperature and particle dynamics.