Renewable energy in sparsely populated areas
Peripheral regions, sparsely populated areas and some mountainous zones and islands often face an accumulation of disadvantages due to problems relating to their remoteness, relative small size in the case of islands, their distance from economic and social centres, higher infrastructure costs, and, in some cases, harsh climatic conditions.
POSSIBILITIES. renewable energy sources in the sparsely populated areas of the North present many possibilities. (Photo: VisitIceland)
Energy supply in and to the sparsely populated areas of the Nordic countries has to be environmentally friendly and based on renewable energy sources.
Possibilities
A change from an energy supply that in many local communities is mainly based on fossil fuels to a supply that is based on renewable energy sources presents many challenges. However, renewable energy sources in the sparsely populated areas of the north present many possibilities, representing a broad technological range with large differences from one locality to another.
New technologies
The challenges and problems that are connected to energy supply in sparsely populated and remote areas are different from those faced by the Nordic region’s centrally located and densely populated areas. The Nordic energy cooperation is to contribute to the development of technologies and means that ensure a sustainable energy system in Nordic regions that are not connected to the transmission lines and which primarily make us of or are going to make use of local solutions.
Common solutions
The Nordic Task Force for Renewable Energy in Sparsely Populated Areas is a task force under the Nordic Committee of Senior Officials under the Nordic Council of Ministers for Energy. The task force has members from the Nordic countries and from the self-governing Nordic countries, and focuses primarily on finding common and suitable solutions for decentralised energy supply that can contribute to reducing the use of fossil fuels. The task force has as its task to present and disseminate their knowledge about the energy supply in remote regions to interested parties. Energy efficiency is a vital denominator for all links in the energy supply – from extraction, over production to distribution and consuming. This is also vital irrespective of geography, climate and accessibility of energy.
Further information:
- Nordic Energy Research: The Nordic Task Force for Renewable Energy in Sparsely Populated areas
- Council of Europe: Challenges and opportunities for peripheral and sparsely populated regions
- The West Nordic Renewable Energy Sources – Mini Green Book (Nordic Energy Research)
- Solar heating system in Greenland (IRS)
The West-Nordic project
Local actors from the Faeroe Islands, Greenland and Iceland in co-operation with Nordic Energy Research has studied different alternatives for distributed energy production systems for scarcely populated areas.
The West-Nordic project pointed out hydrogen technology combined
with wind power, especially in the Faeroe Islands, and solar power or
small scale hydro
power, especially in Greenland, as suitable energy solutions i isolated
areas.
Nordicenergy.net: The West-Nordic project (reports and conclusions)
Update: August 3 2009
Opportunities in Greenland
Hydropower, solar heating and sustainable tourist facilities represent some of the opportunities for renewable energy solutions in Greenland.
Hydro-power is the most researched possibility for exchanging the energy supply based upon fossil fuel with renewable energy sources. In spite of the enormously large hydro potential, it is only possible to supply a small number of the local communities with hydro power, based on the current available technology.
Generally there is only very limited information concerning the wind environment for energy supply purposes. But a combination of hydro-power and wind power might be a possibility.
The use of tide water energy might be difficultin Greenland due to the presence of sea ice and icebergs in most of the relevant localities. Wave energy might be economically interesting.
Solar heating system can be suited for the conditions in Greenland. For instance people need to heat their houses even in summer - when there is a lot of sun.
Further reading:
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