Should Iceland sacrifice its nature to quench foreign data companies' never-thirst for more electricity? The haircut is the question posed by Icelandic environmental groups and landowners who are protesting against the construction of hydropower plants in the Strandir area.

But that description does not match reality, according to Johann Snorri Sigurbergsson, who is the head of business development at HS Orka, which builds the facilities. According to him, the local electricity grid simply needs to be expanded, and according to him, the connection between the project and the cryptocurrencies is taken out of the air.

- It goes beyond my understanding, he says on the phone to SVT News.

Tones down your own task

Sigurbergsson points out that it is rather about trying to skimp on the debate about the disputed cryptocurrency recovery. The digital "mining" has grown strongly in Iceland in recent years and today consumes more electricity than the country's housing.

That task attracted considerable attention last year, and the source was probably Sigurbergsson himself. Today he wants to tone it down. True, that is true, he says, but it is the heavy industry with large smelters that draws a lot of electricity in Iceland - about 80 percent.

Therefore, according to him, data centers are not as big a factor as the debate can give the impression, and according to him, the increased electricity consumption was already in the networks.

Try to get a foothold

A second issue, which SVT has also reported on, is the question of how green the Icelandic electricity really is. On the one hand, virtually all electricity produced in Iceland is renewable. On the other hand, Icelandic electricity companies sell the so-called "environmental value" in a large part of their electricity to other electricity companies in Europe, which means that in 2017, only 17 per cent of the Icelandic electricity was renewable on paper.

But according to Sigurbergsson, the crypto companies' electricity, as well as the electricity of housing, is exempt from that sale. According to him, only the heavy industry is not "green stamped", something they can pay extra for if they want.

He also says that bitcoin has mostly become a bat in the debate.

- Environmental groups use the bitcoin link to gain a foothold in their opposition to the Strandir project, he says.

- It's just their way of trying to get pressure in the debate.