Sweden remains committed to green goals
Sweden is a country with a strong commitment to renewable energy and environmental sustainability. The national capital, Stockholm, despite being the largest city in the country and home to almost a quarter of the population, is one of the cleanest of all European capitals.
The city holds the title of European Green Capital 2010 while in 2007 Sweden news media reported that the city had been voted the greenest city in the world by readers of Reader’s Digest. This ethos in the capital pervades the national character and sustainable energy is not seen as something derisive and unfeasible here, but rather as an integral part of the future.
It is no surprise then that Sweden is already home to one of the largest offshore wind farms in the world (in terms of total energy output), or that there is major growth taking place in the offshore wind energy industry.
The fact that just 1% of the country’s energy production is generated from wind power has been seized upon by industry leaders as cause for concern.
The German-based energy company wpd, recently announced the development of an offshore wind farm near Söderhamn, a region of around 26,000 people. Storgrundet Wind Farm has been approved by the national environmental court and construction will begin in the next two years, wdp told Sweden news media, adding that energy production in Sweden from offshore wind was “almost non-existent”.
Sweden is home to one of the largest offshore wind farms in the world. Lillgrund Wind Farm produces 110 megawatts (MW) of power from 48 Siemens 2.3 wind turbines and powers 60,000 homes. The farm was commissioned in 2008, but it was not until 2010 that another offshore wind farm was built in the country.
Lake Vänern was the location of the second wind farm, a much smaller facility with ten WinWinD wind turbines, each capable of producing three megawatts. However, the project has been characterised by local developers, Swedish Dynawind, as a pilot program designed to facilitate research into offshore wind production on lakes, of which Sweden has many.
On the back of these modest developments in the offshore wind energy sector, 2010 has seen a sudden increase in investment with wdp alone announcing two new offshore wind farms in addition to Söderhamn, namely the large offshore wind farms Finngrunden and Storgrundet.
The Finngrunden project will be the largest of its kind ever in Sweden and the wider Scandinavian region and will be capable of producing 1.5 gigawatts (GW) of power when it is completed. Environmental studies and local planning permission and development regulations are expected to be complete by 2014, upon which construction shall begin.
With 300 5 MW turbines the offshore wind park should be capable of providing electricity to 2 million people, which is roughly a fifth of the country’s entire population. The second wind farm, Storgrundet, will be built southeast of Söderhamn, around 11 kilometers from shore. It will provide 160,000 homes with electricity and is expected to be operational by 2014.
The trend toward renewable energy, a real commitment towards decreasing the country’s dependence on oil, started several decades ago, before many other industrialised countries and was underscored by the oil crisis in 1973. Since then, major investments have been made, largely by the private sector, in renewable and sustainable energy.
Of Sweden’s total energy production, around 47% comes from nuclear-powered plants and 44% from hydropower, a further 9% is generated through the burning of bio fuels such as peat and 1% is generated through wind power, according to Sweden news reports in 2006. This means that less than 10% of the country’s energy is produced with oil or coal, making Sweden one of the leading countries setting an example for sustainable living.
The figures also show a huge improvement between 2005 and 2006. The year before this data was released, the latest figures showed that oil accounted for over 30% of the country’s energy production. The downward trend in oil dependence is the centrepiece of the government initiative Making Sweden an Oil Free Society.
It is a massively ambitious undertaking, with a comprehensive review scheduled for 2020, when the government will look at the progress made by the public and private sector and assess the feasibility of the strategy. There are also tentative plans to begin phasing out fuel-reliant cars from 2025, although this has not been confirmed.
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Sweden Feature
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Sweden remains committed to green goals
Sweden wants its national electricity grid to be entirely free of oil dependence by 2025 and recent developments in the offshore wind energy sector seem to be a step in the right direction.
Sweden is a country with a strong commitment to renewable energy and environmental sustainability. The national capital, Stockholm, despite being the largest city in the country and home to almost a quarter of the population, is one of the cleanest of all European capitals. Read more
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