Minister's visit

Guðlaugur Þór Þórðarson, Minister of the Environment, Energy and Climate, along with his entourage, came recently on a visit to ÍSOR's new premises at Urðarhvarf 8 in Kópavogur. Along with viewing the facilities of ÍSOR's headquarters, the laboratory and the premises of the GRÓ Geothermal Training…

Guðlaugur Þór Þórðarson, Minister of the Environment, Energy and Climate, along with his entourage, came recently on a visit to ÍSOR's new premises at Urðarhvarf 8 in Kópavogur. Along with viewing the facilities of ÍSOR's headquarters, the laboratory and the premises of the GRÓ Geothermal Training Program, there was a chat with staff and managers about environmental and energy matters. There the shared emphases of ÍSOR and the authorities on the importance of supporting basic research in geosciences and the importance of geothermal utilization were discussed. In the Green Paper – status report on challenges in energy matters that the minister recently presented, emphases appear that aim at supporting the country's district heating utilities, and no less are mentioned the authorities' emphases on searching for geothermal energy in cold areas. ÍSOR's seabed research also attracted great interest, as ÍSOR has for years been the chief adviser of the authorities in that field, including with geoscientific argumentation for the delimitation of Iceland's continental shelf and the mapping of natural hazards and resources on the seabed. The minister was also presented with ÍSOR's new policy, which in a nutshell entails that ÍSOR's ambition is to be a leader in advice worldwide in the field of sustainable utilization of geological resources and to support strongly the policy and emphases of Iceland in environmental, resource and energy matters domestically and in international collaboration.

In the accompanying figures one can see Ögmundur Erlendsson, geologist, showing the minister data on landslides on the seabed in Seyðisfjörður, along with group photos of ÍSOR's staff and the GRÓ Geothermal Training Program with the guests.