A key aspect of the memorandum of agreement signed by the parties in Reykjavik is to tap Icelandic experience of integrating geothermal and hydro resources as a model to transform carbon-based US energy into sustainably harnessed, green systems.
The Resource Parl will assist Cornell in designing a renewable energy park for possible deployment on the Cornell campus in Ithaca, NY, with an eye toward transforming the campus into a zero carbon model for other campuses and communities.
“Sustainability is more than just a concept in Icelandic society,” said Jefferson Tester, Cornell’s Croll Professor of Sustainable Energy Systems and director of the Cornell Energy Institute.
“Sustainability has shaped the country and laid the groundwork for this flourishing nation. Iceland has a fiscal infrastructure that is unlike any other in the world. This island is a global leader with over 95 percent of its electricity and heating provided by renewable hydro and geothermal energy,” Tester said.
Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, president of Iceland, visited Cornell in 2014 for a series of meetings and gave a talk explaining his country’s clean energy economy.
“It’s not really about energy, it’s about the economy,” Grímsson said at the time. “It’s about the economic transformation of the country to realize that the move from fossil fuel over to clean energy is fundamentally good business – it’s fundamentally the road to prosperity and economic achievement.”
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