There's two things to know about Iceland and Electricity: First, it uses almost 100% renewables, hydro and geothermal. Second, it produces a lot of electricity compared to its small population. It has attracted energy intensive industries, particularly Aluminium. When researching this I learned that Iceland exports renewable energy certificates - so-called guarantees of origin - to other european countries.

But something seemed odd. Everyone in Iceland - and every company in Iceland - claimed to be using 100% renewables. But if they export certificates, at least nominally they'd be using fossil or nuclear energy. Looking at the Aluminium companies, it was quite obvious: They're using more than half of Iceland's electricity and all claim it is green. And more than half of the electricity gets "exported" as GOs. Doesn't match up.

So the green electricity is counted twice. But at first, basically nobody wanted to talk to me. The european Association of Issuing Bodies was slow to answer. Landsvirkjun, the electricity copmany, said they won't comment on their customers. But eventually, I was able to confirm that this is really what's going on and I wasn't just misunderstanding things.

Now recently I learned there was a conference around these guarantees of origin in Dessau. Not far from where I live. So I went there, and things got more interesting. I learned there was a compliance assessment of Iceland due to my reporting and my questions.

I also learned that an austrian company - Verbund - had complained before about very similar problems. But not with Iceland. With Norway. Norway is an even bigger exporter of guarantees of origin.

A few days ago it was announced that Iceland's exports of guarantees of origin have been suspended. Question just remains: What about Norway?