In Michael Lewis book Boomerang [0], there is a chapter about Iceland and he mentions geothermal.
My understanding:
- b/c of geothermal, huge amounts of electricity are available for low cost
- Iceland being an island makes it VERY expensive to build/transport goods back and forth
- The above combo means that aluminum smelting is the only industry where the electricity availability outweighed the costs of transport and being on an island.
Crypto mining was often mentioned too, but I seldom hear of icelandic Bitcoin miners these days.
I have heard about the benefits of aluminum smelting there before.
We already have transatlantic fiber optic cables so I don’t see why “transportation” costs apply here though