The lack of charging stations has made travelling by electric car in Iceland difficult. However, if the plans of a start-up company, Icelandic Fuel, are realized, this will soon change. The company plans to open its first electric charging station in Sauðárkrókur town in North Iceland in a month, followed by nine more stations, strategically located around Iceland.
Renewable fuel stations around Iceland
Sigurður Eiríksson, the chairman of the company, tells Iceland Insider that the plan is to open ten stations
The main challenge to electric cars is that you can only drive some 120 kilometres [75 miles] before you have to recharge the batteries. So you need charging stations within reasonably short distances from one another
Currently there are only a handful of charging stations in Iceland, all of them located in the capital region. Icelandic Fuel aims to change that
We are planning to open ten charging stations, around Iceland. The first stations will be located in towns Mosfellsbær,Sauðárkrókur, Akureyri, Seyðisfjörður, Höfn í Hornafirði, Vík í Mýrdal, Selfoss and Hafnarfjörður. It will take some time to open all stations, but we hope to complete the project in a year.
Fully charging a car will take 20 minutes, during which motorists will be able to surf the web, as the stations will also offer free Wi-Fi services.
The goal: green, third generation biodiesel
The planned charging stations will also sell biodiesel which Icelandic fuel has been selling for some time to large purchasers, including the tour bus company Grayline. Currently the biodiesel is imported from Sweden, but ultimately the company hopes to be able to offer domestically produced Icelandic biodiesel.
Sigurður tells Iceland Insider that the company has been exploring the production of third generation biodiesel, made from algae, from three years:
We have some of the best conditions here in Iceland to produce such fuels, geothermal energy and hot water and cheap renewable electricity, everything you need to grow algae for fuel production.
Preparation for such production has now been under way for three years, Sigurður tells us, and he hopes the plans can be moved onto the next stage later this year.
Hopefully we can take the first steps toward experimenting with production, and then begin actual production within the next five years. But we are still in the first stages, and it is too early to say anything specific.
The lack of charging stations has made travelling by electric car in Iceland difficult. However, if the plans of a start-up company, Icelandic Fuel, are realized, this will soon change. The company plans to open its first electric charging station in Sauðárkrókur town in North Iceland in a month, followed by nine more stations, strategically located around Iceland.
Renewable fuel stations around Iceland
Sigurður Eiríksson, the chairman of the company, tells Iceland Insider that the plan is to open ten stations
The main challenge to electric cars is that you can only drive some 120 kilometres [75 miles] before you have to recharge the batteries. So you need charging stations within reasonably short distances from one another
Currently there are only a handful of charging stations in Iceland, all of them located in the capital region. Icelandic Fuel aims to change that
We are planning to open ten charging stations, around Iceland. The first stations will be located in towns Mosfellsbær,Sauðárkrókur, Akureyri, Seyðisfjörður, Höfn í Hornafirði, Vík í Mýrdal, Selfoss and Hafnarfjörður. It will take some time to open all stations, but we hope to complete the project in a year.
Fully charging a car will take 20 minutes, during which motorists will be able to surf the web, as the stations will also offer free Wi-Fi services.
The goal: green, third generation biodiesel
The planned charging stations will also sell biodiesel which Icelandic fuel has been selling for some time to large purchasers, including the tour bus company Grayline. Currently the biodiesel is imported from Sweden, but ultimately the company hopes to be able to offer domestically produced Icelandic biodiesel.
Sigurður tells Iceland Insider that the company has been exploring the production of third generation biodiesel, made from algae, from three years:
We have some of the best conditions here in Iceland to produce such fuels, geothermal energy and hot water and cheap renewable electricity, everything you need to grow algae for fuel production.
Preparation for such production has now been under way for three years, Sigurður tells us, and he hopes the plans can be moved onto the next stage later this year.
Hopefully we can take the first steps toward experimenting with production, and then begin actual production within the next five years. But we are still in the first stages, and it is too early to say anything specific.
