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Tag: Sweden

How Sweden Is Transforming Homes Into Power Stations

Posted on by dishanth
How Sweden Is Transforming Homes Into Power Stations

By 2030, almost a third of all the energy consumed in the European Union must come from renewable sources, according to binding targets agreed in 2018. Sweden is helping lead the way.

As well as targeting 100% renewable electricity production by 2040, the country is transforming homes into highly efficient ‘prosumers’ – buildings which both produce and consume the vast majority of their own energy.

Meanwhile local ‘district heating’ plants are using excess heat to produce over 75% of the warmth that Swedish households need. The country also manages to combine the world’s highest carbon taxes with relatively cheap energy prices.

These are all reasons why Sweden tops the Forum’s Energy Transition Index – providing environmental leadership at a time when a Great Reset has never been more needed. Here’s how Sweden is building up local solutions in its energy revolution.

 

Sweden is a world leader in renewable energy consumption. Swedish Institute/World Bank

 

Naturally Warm

54% of Sweden’s power comes from renewables, and is helped by its geography. With plenty of moving water and 63% forest cover, it’s no surprise the two largest renewable power sources are hydropower and biomass. And that biomass is helping support a local energy boom.

Heating is a key use of energy in a cold country like Sweden. In recent decades, as fuel oil taxes have increased, the country’s power companies have turned to renewables, like biomass, to fuel local ‘district heating’ plants.

In Sweden these trace their origins back to 1948, when a power station’s excess heat was first used to heat nearby buildings: steam is forced along a network of pipes to wherever it’s needed. Today, there are around 500 district heating systems across the country, from major cities to small villages, providing heat to homes and businesses.

District heating used to be fueled mainly from the by-products of power plants, waste-to-energy plants and industrial processes. These days, however, Sweden is bringing more renewable sources into the mix. And as a result of competition, this localized form of power is now the country’s home-heating market leader.

 

Sweden is using smart grids to turn buildings into energy producers. Huang et al/Elsevier

 

Energy ‘Prosumers’

But Sweden doesn’t stop at village-level heating solutions. Its new breed of energy-generation takes hyper-local to the next level.

One example is in the city of Ludivika where 1970s flats have recently been retrofitted with the latest smart energy technology.

48 family apartments spread across 3 buildings have been given photovoltaic solar panels, thermal energy storage and heat pump systems. A micro energy grid connects it all, and helps charge electric cars overnight.

The result is a cluster of ‘prosumer’ buildings, producing rather than consuming enough power for 77% of residents’ needs. With high levels of smart meter usage, it’s a model that looks set to spread across Sweden.

 

 

Scaling Up

A recent development by E.ON in Hyllie, a district on the outskirts of Malmö, southern Sweden, has scaled up the smart grid principle. Energy generation comes from local wind, solar, biomass and waste sources.

Smart grids then balance the power, react to the weather, deploying extra power when it’s colder or putting excess into battery storage when it’s warm. The system is not only more efficient, but bills have fallen.

Smart energy developments like those in Hyllie, Ludivika, and renewable-driven district heating, offer a radical alternative to the centralized energy systems many countries rely on today.

The EU’s leaders have a challenge: how to generate 32% of energy from renewables by 2030. Sweden offers a vision of how technology and local solutions can turn a goal into a reality.

 

Source: Eco Watch

These countries are leading the transition to sustainable energy

Posted on by dishanth
These countries are leading the transition to sustainable energy
  • The Energy Transition Index 2020 analyzes the energy sectors of 115 countries.
  • Sweden tops the global rankings as the country most prepared to transition to clean energy.
  • COVID-19 could threaten the rate at which economies adopt more sustainable power.
  • Robust long-term policies are needed to guard against shocks such as the pandemic and climate change.

What does COVID-19 mean for the energy transition? While lockdowns have caused a temporary fall in CO2 emissions, the pandemic risks derailing recent progress in addressing the world’s energy challenges.

The current state of the sector is described in the World Economic Forum’s Energy Transition Index 2020. It benchmarks the energy systems of 115 economies, highlighting the leading players in the race to net-zero emissions, as well as those with work to do.

With pressure to get idle economies back to “normal”, the short-term shift to a more sustainable energy sector could be in doubt. But the current crisis also presents an opportunity to rethink how our energy needs are met, and consider the long-term impact on the planet.

Unprecedented change

The past decade has seen rapid transformations as countries move towards clean energy generation, supply and consumption. Coal-fired power plants have been retired, as reliance on natural gas and emissions-free renewable energy sources increases. Incremental gains have been made from carbon pricing initiatives.

 

 

Since 2015, 94 of 115 countries have improved their combined score on the Energy Translation Index (ETI), which analyzes each country’s readiness to adopt clean energy using three criteria: energy access and security; environmental sustainability; and economic development and growth.

But the degree of change and the timetable for reaching net-zero emissions differ greatly between countries, and taken as a whole, today’s advances are insufficient to meet the climate targets set by the Paris Agreement.

 

The 10 countries most prepared for the energy transition

 

Sweden is the nation most ready to transition to sustainable energy.
Image: WEF Fostering Effective Energy Transition 2020 edition

 

Sweden tops the overall ETI ranking for the third consecutive year as the country most ready to transition to clean energy, followed by Switzerland and Finland. There has been little change in the top 10 since the last report, which demonstrates the energy stability of these developed nations, although the gap with the lowest-ranked countries is closing.

Top-ranked countries share a reduced reliance on imported energy, lower energy subsidies and a strong political commitment to transforming their energy sector to meet climate targets.

The UK and France are the only two G20 economies in the top 10 however, which is otherwise made up of smaller nations.

 

Powerful shocks

Outside the top 10, progress has been modest in Germany. Ranked 20th, the country has committed to phasing out coal-fired power plants and moving industrial output to cleaner fuels such as hydrogen, but making energy services affordable remains a struggle.

 

 

China, ranked 78th, has made strong advances in controlling CO2 emissions by switching to electric vehicles and investing heavily in solar and wind energy – it currently has the world’s largest solar PV and onshore wind capacity. Alongside China, countries including Argentina, India and Italy have shown consistent strong improvements every year. Gains over time have also been recorded by Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Kenya and Oman, among others.

But high energy-consuming countries including the US, Canada and Brazil show little, if any, progress towards an energy transition.

In the US (ranked 32nd), moves to establish a more sustainable energy sector have been hampered by policy decisions. Neighbouring Canada grapples with the conflicting demands of a growing economy and the need to decarbonize the energy sector.

The COVID-19 pandemic serves as a reminder of the impact of external shocks on the global economy. As climate change increases the likelihood of weather extremes such as floods, droughts and violent storms, the need for more sustainable energy practices is intensified.

Policy-makers need to develop a robust framework for energy transition at local, national and international levels, capable of guarding against such shocks.

“The coronavirus pandemic offers an opportunity to consider unorthodox intervention in the energy markets, and global collaboration to support a recovery that accelerates the energy transition once the acute crisis subsides,” says Roberto Bocca, Head of Energy & Materials at the World Economic Forum.

“This giant reset grants us the option to launch aggressive, forward-thinking and long-term strategies leading to a diversified, secure and reliable energy system that will ultimately support the future growth of the world economy in a sustainable and equitable way.”

 

 

Written by

Johnny Wood, Senior Writer, Formative Content

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.