I love watching the Discovery travel and living channel.  One of the places I’ve been wanting to visit is Iceland.  I admit I have been a huge fan of some of the musicians from Iceland but more than that, I have been mesmerized by some of the landscape photographs I have seen.  I was once again enlightened while randomly watching an episode of Discovery’s Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern where he visits Iceland.

Did you know that 80% of Iceland’s electricity is generated by using hydropower?  The remaining 20% is generated by using geothermal power.  This translates to zero emissions power!

Andrew Zimmern visited Heilsukostur, a restaurant in Hveragerdi and the only restaurant in the world that operates purely using steam as its sole source of energy.  The stream is brought from a near by hot spring through steel pipes at a temperature of 320 degrees Fahrenheit.  That means rice is done in 10 minutes!

Iceland does has an advantage from the abundant source of renewable energy that occurs naturally.  The island itself is located on the Mid-Atlantic ridge which makes it very active, volcanically.  That’s where all the steam comes from!  The earth soaks up all the rain and the volcanic activity underground heats the water to create steam.

Iceland is one of few places in the world that have hydrogen retail stations.  It’s like any other gas station but instead of filling up with gas, you fill up your hydroelectric vehicle with hydrogen.   What comes out of the exhaust pipe?  Water!