A small nation finds a profitable use for its spare electricity

Iceland can produce loads of cheap electricity by geothermal means, but one can't export electricity any great distance. However, there is a trend for multi-national specialists like Google to build huge computer "farms" to handle all the data, and data requests, they make their living from - and data can be imported and exported easily. These data farms need a lot of cheap reliable electricity, which is what Iceland is offering. It could also be that is easier to cool all that computing machinery in Iceland than in southern California.

Cllr John Tallamy is wont to say, when yet another application for a power station in Neath Port Talbot comes before the planning committee, that we already produce more electricity in Wales than we consume in Wales. The trouble is that it is not cheap.