Minister of Industries and Innovation Steingrímur J. Sigfússon commented at a Left-Green campaign meeting for the April 27 election in Akureyri on Monday that he would like a new EIA to be carried out for the Bjarnarflag geothermal power plant by Lake Mývatn in North Iceland.
Mývatn. Photo: Páll Stefánsson/Iceland Review.
Steingrímur added that he would like Landsvirkjun, the national power company, to start drilling for energy at Þeistareykir, another geothermal area in the region, until it is established what impact the Bjarnarflag plant would have on Mývatn, ruv.is reports.
“We don’t want to take any risk regarding the biosphere of Mývatn and Laxá,” Steingrímur stated. “Fortunately there are no implications with energy harnessing elsewhere in Þingeyjarsýsla and it would be preferable if Landsvirkjun were to decide to start with Þeistareykir.”
The energy will be used for a planned silicon factory at Bakki by Húsavík, recently greenlighted by the minister with new legislation.
More than 7,500 people have signed a petition urging authorities to repeat the ten-year-old EIA for Bjarnarflag, reasoning a power plant there would have serious consequences for the RAMSAR listed Mývatn and Laxá area.
Related:
16.04.2013 | New Survey: Icelanders Oppose Mývatn Power Plant
21.02.2013 | Industrial Development Prepared in North Iceland
ESA
