We need to complete the energy transition and work faster toward it.

Árni Hrannar Haraldsson, CEO of ON Power, took part yesterday in a panel discussion at the successful annual meeting of Reykjavík Energy. Joining him on the panel were Bjarni Benediktsson, CEO of the Confederation of Icelandic Enterprise, Daði Már Kristófersson, Minister of Finance, and Edda Sif Aradóttir, CEO of Carbfix.

The discussions focused on how Iceland can seize the opportunities offered by increased energy production, innovation and infrastructure development. The prioritization, strategy and cooperation of the authorities and the business community were discussed to ensure sufficient energy and Iceland's competitiveness in the future.

Árni Hrannar pointed out that Iceland was facing challenging yet exciting times when it comes to energy production, infrastructure development and value creation in the future.
“We need new energy, it will probably be more expensive, and infrastructure development will cost money. We need to look at that in the context of the country's competitiveness,” he said, stressing that Iceland was competing with Europe and the world for new opportunities in energy-related activity.

Opportunities in existing operations and in new paths

When asked about the main opportunities for ON, Árni said it was important to look both at existing operations and new ways of producing energy. “What matters for ON is to continue maintaining the production capacity of our power plants.”
He also mentioned deep geothermal exploitation as a possible new resource for Icelanders, and low-temperature heat as offering significant opportunities for greater utilization on a local basis.

In the following, Árni emphasized that the energy transition needs to be accelerated and the projects already well underway need to be completed. “We need to finish the energy transition and work faster on it,” he said, pointing out that international developments had clearly shown the importance of reducing the use of fossil fuels. “We can see how world politics affects oil prices and how important it is for us to increase the use of electricity.”

Car rental companies need to be on board

Árni said the next big challenge lies in moving certain sectors over to electricity, with car rental companies playing a key role there. “The big elephant in the room is the car rental companies; they need to be brought into electricity,” he said, adding that the technical prerequisites were largely in place. The range of electric cars had increased significantly and the development of charging infrastructure was well advanced. “So what is missing?” Árni asked and answered himself: “This is not a technical problem, this is an implementation problem.”

He also spoke about the importance of cooperation between public entities and the market in the next steps. Resources would need to be allocated wisely to ensure that infrastructure development truly supports usage. “We need to make sure that the tourist wants, can and dares to use this,” he said, also noting that ON Power had been working systematically on building a charging network since 2014 and that, according to the company's calculations, it could cost around 3 billion ISK to ensure that all car rental companies in Iceland can switch to electricity.

This is a discussion that needs to continue after good discussions at Reykjavík Energy's annual meeting yesterday, where many other exciting things also came up regarding the company's operations as a whole. Here you can see a recording of the meeting in full.