{"id":357631,"date":"2018-04-20T14:05:02","date_gmt":"2018-04-20T13:05:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/iceland-takes-hard-look-at-tech-boom-sparked-by-its-cheap-bountiful-power\/"},"modified":"2018-04-20T14:05:02","modified_gmt":"2018-04-20T13:05:02","slug":"iceland-takes-hard-look-at-tech-boom-sparked-by-its-cheap-bountiful-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/iceland-takes-hard-look-at-tech-boom-sparked-by-its-cheap-bountiful-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Iceland Takes Hard Look at Tech Boom Sparked by Its Cheap, Bountiful Power"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"\">\n<p>Steaming geysers, dramatic waterfalls and icy landscapes lure millions of tourists to this country every year. Now its geology is fueling a computer tech boom.<\/p>\n<p>But the voracious electricity demand of Iceland\u2019s proliferating data centers is testing the island nation\u2019s environmental ethos.<\/p>\n<p>Iceland\u2019s Nordic climate and the geothermal steam rising from the tectonic fault line that runs beneath it provide two things the computers that run world\u2019s economy need in seemingly endless supply: cooling and electricity.<\/p>\n<p>By 2030, data centers and all internet-related activity\u2014from streaming video to analyzing financial data to storing software, photos and emails\u2014could use more electricity than all of China did this year, according to a study from the Western Norway Research Institute and Huawei Technologies Co. Iceland is becoming the bleeding edge of the world\u2019s newest power-hungry industry.<\/p>\n<p>Iceland\u2019s first environmentalist government is now considering ways to slow the rise of data centers in the country by reviewing its rulebook for adding new power plants. Many lawmakers say they worry the tech boom is putting Iceland\u2019s pristine nature at risk\u2014the crux of its crucial tourism industry.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you get down to it you are dealing with extremely rare and beautiful places, delicate places,\u201d said Andri Snaer Magnason, a poet, activist and third-place finisher in Iceland\u2019s last presidential election. \u201cThe expansion of the current grid is quite painful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/redice.tv\/news\/iceland-takes-hard-look-at-tech-boom-sparked-by-its-cheap-bountiful-power\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Steaming geysers, dramatic waterfalls and icy landscapes lure millions of tourists to this country every year. Now its geology is fueling a computer tech boom. But the voracious electricity demand of Iceland\u2019s proliferating data centers is testing the island nation\u2019s environmental ethos. Iceland\u2019s Nordic climate and the geothermal steam rising from the tectonic fault line [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2520,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-357631","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2520"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357631\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}