Arctic News

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Iceland's energy company eyes the Arctic — and a transformational Greenlandic...

The biggest unresolved question is who buys the power. Green ammonia was the original frontrunner for many of the consortia involved, a post-Ukraine energy shock idea that gained momentum quickly and collapsed just as fast. It simply proved too expensive. Data centres, aluminium smelting, and a subsea cable to Canada have all been discussed as alternatives. Under the tender, any consortium must bring an energy buyer with them.

“You don’t build a plant like this without someone buying the power,” Guðmundsson said.

Greenland, he argues, is well suited to whatever that buyer turns out to be. The logic is the same as Iceland’s own industrial model. “In Iceland we export electricity in the form of aluminium, silicon, data,” Guðmundsson said. “The electricity stays, the product leaves. That is just our export — it is electricity. The same would happen there.”
Iceland’s energy company eyes the Arctic — and a transformational Greenlandic dam

Tasersiaq — a game changer

The centrepiece of all of it is a project called Tasersiaq, a hydropower site in western Greenland that has been under study for over 15 years and remains one of the largest undeveloped opportunities of its kind left in the Western world.
At around 700 MW, Tasersiaq would be comparable in scale to Iceland’s Kárahnjúkar plant, one of the largest hydropower stations in Europe. Greenland’s entire existing hydropower capacity is around 90 MW. One dam would produce roughly eight times that.

“You simply don’t find this elsewhere, not in the Alps, not in Iceland,” Guðmundsson said. “There are very few opportunities of this scale and efficiency still available in the Western world.”

[Jughead]

So they’ve found a great spot to build a massive power station … but no such power station is needed?

@ombugge

The biggest unresolved question is who buys the power.

I reckon whenTrump takes over, he’ll have an idea or two; Greenland’s St Tropez? Year round northern lights? Heating the arctic to tropical paradise levels?

[ombugge]

Right again!!
Yes that appears to be in the level with everything else he has manage to come up with, so far.
No prediction about the future and what kind of crazyness he may come up with next.

PS: Don’t make a habit of being right, somebody may start to believe. you.

[ombugge]

Who shapes the Arctic's future? A gathering in Bodø offered many options -...

It all started with a cold beer
Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide kicked things off by talking about geopolitics with beer barrels as a backdrop. This was, after all, the brewinar , a format far more engaging than a typical webinar.

Brewinar at Bådin. Credit: Mariia Filiushina / Kontrafei.

Also on the governance panel was Amy Baker, Canada’s ambassador to Norway, who offered a practical definition of diplomacy. “Prime ministers sign an agreement, but what’s key is how companies and organizations work with one another,” she said. “Diplomats are here to ensure the right conversations happen and identify barriers if any.”

Preparedness, safety, resilience: these themes recurred throughout the event, often framed through policies and institutional responses to military issues. But two moments stood out for putting people, rather than systems, at the center , giving another dimension to those words.

Vesa Orassalo, a 25-year-old Skolt Sami from Näätämö (a Finnish village close to the Norwegian border), was asked who he calls in an emergency. “My Dad,” he answered simply. That got a smile from the room, but his reasoning was pragmatic. His family knows the land, so they can reach him faster than any formal rescue operation.
Orassalo also acknowledged Norway’s responsiveness, with helicopters available when hospital care is needed across the border.

What particularly stood out throughout the event is how young people’s perspectives were blended with those of high-level decision-makers.”Ten years ago, we only had the best of intentions,” said Jennifer Spence, Director of the Arctic Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School, “Now, the youth is at the table.”

FYI: Where it all begun: General 2 — BÅDIN

[ombugge]

Vyacheslav Ruksha passed away on April 26, 2026

His name is associated with the key decisions that shaped the development of the maritime sector for decades to come.
Vyacheslav Ruksha, a man whose carrier became part of the history of Russia’s nuclear icebreaker fleet, the Northern Sea Route, and the modern Arctic, passed away on April 26, 2026.
Vyacheslav Ruksha had a distinguished career starting as an electrical foreman on the nuclear icebreaker Arktika and later was promoted to Director General of Murmansk Shipping Company, First Deputy Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation, Head of the Federal Agency for Maritime and River Transport, Director General of Atomflot, and Deputy Director General of ROSATOM State Corporation, Director of the Arctic Directorate.
He belonged to a rare type of leader who combined engineering competence with a national-scale approach. For him, the nuclear icebreaker fleet was not merely an industry but a strategic tool for strengthening Russia’s position in the Arctic and the World Ocean, the backbone of sustainable shipping, industrial development of the country’s northern territories, and the future of the Northern Sea Route. The name of Vyacheslav Ruksha is associated with key decisions that determined the industry’s development for decades: extending the service life of icebreakers’ nuclear steam generators, completing the construction of nuclear-powered vessel 50 Years of Victory, preserving and developing Atomflot, formulating requirements for the next-generation of universal nuclear icebreakers of Project 22220, and strengthening the infrastructure role of the Northern Sea Route.
Vyacheslav Ruksha was and will forever remain in our memory and our hearts as a great patriot of his country, a true professional, and a person of outstanding character. His energy, will, foresight, and devotion to the Arctic made it possible to preserve the unique competencies of Russia’s icebreaker fleet and to open a new chapter in the nation’s Arctic shipping.The passing of Vyacheslav Vladimirovich Rucksha is a grievous loss for the entire country, for present and future generations.
*****May his memory live for ever! *****
Source: Maasmond Newsclippings, 109-2026.

[ombugge]

Cat and mouse game in the Arctic. But where IS the cat?:

Arctic oil hub tanker “disappears” from the map

Is this tanker going to load at Kola/Lotta? Where is it going next?:

Shadow tanker that broke Cuba fuel blockade loads Arctic crude in Murmansk

[ombugge]

Nothing new about wishing to take over Greenland:

Politics and science in Greenland

During the peace negotiations after the First World War in 1919, the Danish Foreign Minister contacted his Norwegian counterpart, Nils Claus Ihlen. Denmark was soliciting international support for extending its sovereignty to all of Greenland, not just the colonies on the west and southeast coasts. In 1916, the United States had consented to Danish control as part of the deal when the US bought the Danish West Indies. Now the Danes wanted to know how Norway would react to their bid for full sovereignty over Greenland. The Norwegian Foreign Minister stated that Norway would not oppose it, as long as Denmark supported Norway’s desire for sovereignty over Spitsbergen. Norway attained that goal the following year, when the Spitsbergen Treaty was signed.

Erik the Red’s Land

The actual occupation amounted to no more than the men exiting their cabin to raise the Norwegian flag and remove their hats. Using a string attached to the camera, they took a selfie so that all five occupiers would be included in the photo. They then went back into the station and signed a declaration that translates as: “On this day, at 5 pm, we raised the Norwegian flag and took possession of the territory from the Carlsberg Fjord in the south to the Besselfjord in the north in the name of HM King Haakon VII, and called it Erik the Red’s Land.” The declaration was telegraphed to a number of Norwegian newspapers.

Left: Building trapper’s cabins was an efficient way to demonstrate that an area was being used by Norwegians. This image shows the cabin at Kap Herschell, built by members of the Hird expedition in 1927. Right: The Norwegian flag flies in Myggbukta 27 June 1931, signalling that Eirik Raudes Land has been occupied. Trappers left to right: Hallvard Devold, Eiliv Herdal, Ingvald Strøm, Søren Richter and Thor Halle.
Photos: Norwegian Polar Institute

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Arctic ports and the shipping boom they aren't ready for - ArcticToday