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Harnessing geothermal water was an unlikely way to take on a pressing problem in Iceland: substitute oil and coal in the late thirties. As a reaction to the oil crisis in the 1970s, measures were taken by national authorities to substitute unsustainable energy. The transition was a success. The space heating system was and is based on a system for extracting and distributing geothermal water which had been strengthened in the early sixties and for the most part a fully publicly financed endeavour. In the turn of the century, as a part of the surge of privatisation in the neighbouring countries and the importance of competition, measures were taken to build technologically advanced large-scale geothermal power plants which turned to be a showcase of advanced technical knowledge but a financial disaster. In recent decades the diverging understanding of geothermal water as an energy source versus the …