Greenland
2.166 million sq. km
the largest island in the world that is not a continent
56,770
one of the smallest populations of any country on earth, mainly concentrated in the southwest [1]
75%
of Greenland's area is covered by the sole major ice sheet outside Antarctica [2]
The following map shows Greenland's population concentration in the southwest
A Dispersed Population
More than a third of the population, approximately 19,279 , live in the capital Nuuk. Other towns tend to have much lower populations, with only 12 other towns having a population higher than the 1000 threshold while only 14 towns had a population between 200 and 1000 [3]. This is the main reason for the lack of an interconnected national electricity grid.
Current Situation
Greenland electricity generation today is dominated by renewable energy, mainly hydropower, but that is only one part of the story [4]. Hydropower plants tend to require higher capital costs that makes them not feasible for the small towns mentioned above, and hence all the hydropower plants contributing to the 71% electricity generation from renewables are located near the larger towns [5]. This has created a large disparity in electricity decarbonization between the larger more developed areas and the remote smaller communities that still rely heavily on imported oil for their electricity needs.
A Localized Solutions Approach to Electricity Grid
The lack of a national interconnected electricity grid gave rise to the reliance on localized solutions, this came in the form of small grids connecting consumers in these small towns to diesel powered generation facilities. This is mainly due to the remote and dispersed nature of the population centers, and to some geographical and infrastructural challenges.
Greenland’s Fresh Water Abundance
Recent estimates by the Ice Sheet Mass Balance Inter-Comparison Exercise (IMBIE) suggests that Greenland is losing approximately 247 billion tons of ice per year from its ice sheets, heavily contributing to rising sea levels. The rate of ice loss as a result of climate change has increased in the past ten years compared to its historical average [6].
Most of the water resulting from ice sheet melting is lost to oceans, but a portion of it remains on land as part of surface water, this offers a significant opportunity for green hydrogen production given the high purity of this water.
Aerial photo of giant icebergs in Disko Bay on Greenland floating in Ilulissat icefjord
References
[1] Statbank Greenland, "Population January 1st 1977-2024 [BEESTA]," 2024. [Online]. Available: https://bank.stat.gl/pxweb/en/Greenland/Greenland__BE__BE01__BE0120/BEXSTA.px/. [Accessed 15 March 2024].
[2] S. P. Raikar, "Greenland Ice Sheet," 2024. [Online]. Available: https://www.britannica.com/place/Greenland-Ice-Sheet. [Accessed 16 April 2024].
[3] Statbank Greenland, "Population in Municipalities January 1st 1977-2024 [BEESTB]," 2024. [Online]. Available: https://bank.stat.gl/pxweb/en/Greenland/Greenland__BE__BE01__BE0120/BEXSTB.px/. [Accessed 7 March 2024].
[4] Worldometer, "Greenland Electricity," 2016. [Online]. Available: https://www.worldometers.info/electricity/greenland-electricity/. [Accessed 27 February 2024].
[5] Department of Agriculture, Self-Sufficiency, Energy and Environment, "Greenland hydropower resources," 2024. [Online]. Available: https://hydropower.gl/. [Accessed 1 March 2024].
[6] The Ice Sheet Mass Balance Inter-comparison Exercise (IMBIE), "Mass balance of the Greenland Ice Sheet from 1992 to 2018," Nature, vol. 579, pp. 233-239, 2019.