Algae Production Powerhouse: Iceland's Asbru Enterprise Park Grows Green Business

REYKJANES, Iceland, February 19, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

The name Iceland brings to mind a number of cliches about glaciers and hot springs and active volcanoes that bring air travel to a halt - but Iceland, with its long history of harnessing 100% renewable geothermal energy, offers much more than simple cliches.

When the time came to repurpose the former NATO base in southwestern Iceland, near Keflavik, Iceland's entrepreneurs went to work creating Asbru Enterprise Park, which has been building innovation on Iceland's unique properties and propositions ever since.

At the forefront of this economic development is greentech and green energy, which has enabled Iceland to attract everything from major corporate data centres to more innovation and niche businesses, such as greenhouses for algae production for the health and cosmetics sector.

Harnessing Iceland's Strengths for Health and Cosmetics Sectors

The Reykjanes peninsula, where the Asbru Enterprise Park is located, offers a whole host of potential benefits for the burgeoning health and cosmetics sector, including the growing interest in tapping into existing infrastructure, real estate and energy to create greenhouses for commercial algae production.

Asbru's Business Development Specialist, Oli Orn Eirksson, listed some of the factors that make Asbru a unique place to invest, particularly in this sector, "The Reykjanes peninsula is already actively engaged in the algae-production business, the most famous of these being the Blue Lagoon. A number of companies are using the greenhouses here to produce raw material for the biotech sector. The infrastructure is in place, including geothermal energy, an abundance of hot and cold water, both fresh and from the sea, as well as real estate - both existing buildings and plots of land for development."

Likewise, the Asbru facilities are just 45 minutes from central Reykjavik, Iceland's capital, and only six minutes from Keflavik International Airport passenger terminal, which offers direct flights to most major European cities and several US cities. This offers a great geographical advantage.

Iceland Enables Cashing In on Natural Assets

"After its economic troubles in 2008, Iceland has been working very hard to redefine itself - or rather to show that the economic growth and potential offered by Iceland was not limited or hampered by what happened to its economy," stated Erika Wolfe, chief editor at locations4business, "Asbru has highlighted Iceland's clear differentiators in both mainstream and niche industries, more than living up to its aim to become a viable green energy research centre, a hub for health and medical production and tourism and an international centre for data hosting. Iceland's vast geothermal energy resources facilitate this, and Iceland's geographic location is something of a logistics coup for businesses looking for a middle ground between Europe and North America."

Locations4business is an online business-to-business resource that offers comprehensive, independent, third-party site selection and location information to help businesses research and make decisions on locating their business operations.

Visit L ocations4business to learn more about investing in Iceland at the Asbru Enterprise Park.

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SOURCE Asbru Enterprise Park