Valdimar told Vísir.is that he thinks it is worrying how little research has been done into the sea’s potential energy around Iceland. Most marine research in Iceland seems to be about aquaculture (fish farming) and harbour construction, he says.

He adds, however, that there is a extremely large amount of exploitable energy in the sea which is not yet being tapped. “The Irish have made a good estimate of the total amount of energy they have. They believe they could generate 240 terawatt hours a year and if we translate that over to Iceland by size that that would make 330 terawatt hours a year. That is around twenty-times the amount of energy we are using today,” Valdimar says.

Valorka has conducted pre-tests on its turbine and plans more this summer; probably off the Snæfellsnes peninsula. If the trials go well then a prototype will be made of a completely underwater turbine design. According to its owner, “Valorka is a world leader in trying to harness offshore ocean currents”.

Power cuts are very bad for aluminium smelters and can cause severe damage to equipment after three or four hours, as molten metal cools. Ágúst Hafberg, the Norðurál manager, says that his plant in all likelihood escaped serious damage yesterday because they were lucky enough to get some limited power back after three hours. It was enough to keep equipment running, although production remained at a standstill. The electricity supply was not fully restored until 06.00 this morning. Salt and snow are blamed for causing a fire at an electrical substation nearby and various difficulties which left much of the country without electric.

“We can only stand about three or four hours without energy or we risk damage to the smelting pots,” Ágúst said in an interview with RÚV today. Asked if any damage had occurred, he said: “We are looking into it, we think it was nothing serious but we still have to finalise how much was done”.

He believes, however, that delays to aluminium production alone yesterday mean millions in losses for the company; but says a concrete figure is not yet available.

The nearby Elkem ferrosilicon plant was without power for around 12 hours. But production foreman Einar Þorsteinsson does not believe the plant’s equipment is seriously damaged: “As far as we can see at the moment, we don’t think so and generally it is the case that if we loses electric supply to our equipment we are not in a position that it causes major damage. It is first and foremost production losses that cost us,” Einar said.

How much was lost yesterday? “I can’t say exactly but it looks like several tens of millions of krónur,” Einar says.

ISK 10,000,000 is about EUR 63,000 at today’s rate.

The south-western Salo region was the worst hit, while Ostrobothnia continues to experience problems, as does Kirkkonummi and Espoo, farther south. Officials said as many as 200,000 households have been affected by the intense storms following Christmas, especially those with roofing composed of sheet metal due to wind speeds of up to 30 metres per second.

Repair work and restoration of power to all areas is taking longer than expected, energy utility firm Fortum reports. The company’s customer relations head, Timo Jutila, told Helsingin Sanomat, “The repair work has lasted longer with us than with other distributors because the terrain is very difficult”.

The comments come following heavy criticism of Fortum by government officials. Jyri Hakamies has called on utility bodies to be better prepared ahead of storms and said that the process in which electrical lines are buried underground needs to be speeded up.

Power is back online in many areas, however. Crews were recently able to restore electricity in Siikajärvi, Espoo, almost five days after it was taken out by strong winds.

Although painting lampposts and fences does reduce the problem, the company said that the smelly deposits wear away hot galvanized and aluminium items, causing potential danger for pedestrians and drivers if they collapse. They are appealing to dog owners, pointing out the it costs around EUR 10,000 to replace lampposts and EUR 500 for new park fences.

Speaking to YLE, Helsingin Energia lighting manager Olli Markkanen said, “We have had to replace many lamp posts because of corrosion. Hopefully dog owners will take their pets elsewhere to make their presence known.”

Many dog owners have, however, taken offence to the accusation that their pooches are to blame, claiming the problem may just as easily be caused by humans caught short in the street.

The American giant formally cancelled its interest in a letter to Husavik councillors yesterday, Visir.is reports.

The president of Alcoa in Iceland says that the Landsvirkjun power company could neither offer enough electricity for the project or at a low enough price compared to neighbouring countries like the USA, Canada and Norway.

Alcoa already runs a large smelter in eastern Iceland and it fell to the company’s head in Iceland, Tomas Mar Sigurdsson, to withdraw the company’s interest at a meeting with four municipalities’ councillors in Husavik yesterday afternoon.

Sigurdsson told Visir.is that he does not agree with those who say the proposed smelter had always been too big a project for the region to sustain, otherwise Alcoa would not have taken the idea so far since 2005, he said. The decision is, however, final now that it has been made.

There is enough energy in the area for heavy industry and Landsvirkjun has already signed declarations of intent with several companies. The trouble is that they cannot sell the same electricity twice, Sigurdsson says.

In 2004, 8.7 terawatt hours of electricity were generated in Iceland per year — a figure which had shot up to 17 tw/h by 2009. The Karahnjukar hydroelectric dam, which was put into use in 2007, produces 5 tw/h on its own. That represents a near-doubling in five years. By comparison, energy production increased by 20 percent in the five previous years, between 1999 and 2004. All of Karahnjukar’s electricity production is used by the Alcoa aluminium smelter in Reydarfjordur.

The Icelandic government has published a resource utilisation plan for energy options in the country. The plan takes account of all potential energy production sites, then looks into their economic viability and their impact on nature and the environment. The document concludes that Iceland could realistically produce up to 53 tw/h per year.

Landsvirkjun, Iceland’s biggest energy company, generates 12 tw/h per year and plans to nearly double that figure in the next 14 years; meaning that company by itself would be producing 23 tw/h by 2025. It plans to achieve this by building 10 hydroelectric stations and four geothermal stations to 2025.

The National Energy Authority has calculated that Iceland’s energy production potential is 84 tw/h from all available hydro and geothermal sources. However, the figure does not take into account nature reserves and national parks (among other things) and a more realistic figure is 30-50 tw/h, RUV reports.

Energy use has been the subject of a wide ranging national debate in Iceland. Some people want the country to produce as much green energy as possible, while others believe the countryside is already impacted enough by human activity. Still others say that Iceland should produce energy, as long as it is not used for more heavy industry. International data centres and the possibility of an undersea cable to Scotland fit these people’s ideas better than smelters.

Landsvirkjun, Iceland’s biggest energy producer, has signed a contract for the design of a 109 megawatt hydroelectric power station in the Eastern European nation of Georgia.

The power station will harness the Tergi river in the Caucasus mountains near to the Russian border in the north of Georgia.

A statement from Landsvirkjun says that the station will be a so-called flow station made up of a dam with an overflow, an inflow pipe, a sand trap and a 1.6 kilometre long trench connecting to a six kilometre-long tunnel to the turbines.

The technology comes via Finnish energy firm Fortum and a pilot programme is aiming to further top the already-smart technology found in energy meters throughout the country. The company said that a second pilot scheme would be starting soon.

The “smart meter” devices, produced by Echelon Corporation, have been specifically designed to aid utility organisations connect with building control and information devices such as thermostats, motion detectors, load controllers and in-home displays.

Echelon said that the new CNX 3000 module would enable Fortum to utilise Echelon Control Operating System software in order to provide new information and controls in the effort of energy efficiency. The new technology will also be able to provide residents and building owners/operators with information regarding patterns in energy usage as well as the ability to have better control over consumption habits.

The software was initially introduced in autumn last year and runs on the Echelon Edge Control Node. It is the first ever utility platform for open-standard controls and has the ability to run third party apps on the edges of the grid system.

Fortum is Norway’s biggest utility in Finland and has other operations in Russia and throughout the Baltic and Nordic regions.

A statement from the pension funds says that the funds have all agreed together, along with Magma Energy, that the price for a quarter share in HS Orka will be around ISK 8 billion (EUR 49 million). The funds have entered a process of due diligence whereby they assess the company, the asking price and future projections.

8 billion is the same price that Magma paid for the 25 percent stake, RUV reports.

In addition to the 25 percent, Magma is apparently willing to sell the pension funds a further stake; which would bring their ownership up to a third of HS Orka. The minimum share the pension funds will hold is 22.5 percent. An investment decision is expected within a month.

The sale of HS Orka from Icelandic municipalities to a foreign energy giant has proven extremely controversial. As part of a pill-sweetening operation, Magma declared that it was willing to sell a portion of the company back into Icelandic hands. The offer was especially extended to the singer Bjork, who has been one of the most vocal opponents of the deal.

This information comes from a written answer to the House of Commons from energy minister Charles Hendry.

The cable would be the longest under sea power line in the world, at over 1,600 km.

Hendry says he has not spoken to Icelandic authorities directly, but that his department has been speaking with Icelandic companies. This idea has been discussed and investigated for over a decade and has always been considered technically possible, but uneconomical.

Now the economic requirements have changed somewhat and the demand for renewable electricity carries on growing. If things move relatively quickly, the cable could potentially be operational by 2020, RUV reports.