Sunday 2 November 2014
Sweden is showing the way in
renewable energy and energy efficiency
While
discussion of renewable energy in Australia has largely focused on wind, solar
and hydro for electricity generation, Sweden has opted for an economy-wide
biomass-based system. Farmer Andrew Lang takes a look at the Swedish model and
how it could be applied here.
Renewable
energy is in the spotlight again in Australia, with the Renewable Energy Target
under review. In Australia the focus seems always to be on electricity generation,
which is only about 30 per cent of our energy, while heat and transport fuels
tend to be overlooked. In the EU, the focus on reducing emissions of greenhouse
gases deals with all three, and Sweden is particularly advanced in this.
The
Swedish figures show that GDP and carbon emissions can be decoupled. In Sweden,
GDP and biomass track upward in step, while the greenhouse gas emissions have
fallen to significantly below 1990 figures.
I have
been returning to Sweden every two years to attend the World Bioenergy
conference in the city of Jönköping, which has given me a sort of time-lapse
study of new developments in recycling, energy efficiency and renewable energy.
The changes in use of transport biofuels are also obvious.
On my most
recent trip, I flew into Stockholm’s Arlanda airport with a Sudanese colleague,
a specialist on making biodiesel, and we were both struck by the fact that the
fleet of buses shuttling people between the airport and the city ran on
biodiesel. In Stockholm proper, all city buses ran on biodiesel, ethanol or
biogas as well. ‘It’s actually being done,’ my colleague said in amazement.
‘It’s all possible.’
My first
visit to the conference was in 2006. Many of the presentations were on the
production and importance of biofuels, particularly the ‘first generation’
fuels—ethanol and biodiesel. Use of waste for energy production was another
topic. We visited the nearly-completed Torsvik waste-to-energy plant, which
aimed to use over 120,000 tonnes of non-recyclable municipal waste a year to
produce electricity and heat for Jönköping. Another topic was the production of
biogas and its upgrading to pure methane. We visited the anaerobic digestor at
the city sewage plant and a nearby fuelling station for municipal dual-fuel
vehicles.
Two years
later, the Torsvik waste-to-energy plant was performing to specification,
generating close to 30 per cent of the municipality’s electricity needs and
half of its wintertime heat needs. The biogas volume produced by the anaerobic
digestor at the city main sewage plant gad been boosted by the addition of a
growing fraction of the city population’s food residues, and fuelled most of
the municipal fleet and many private cars
.
Talk at
this conference was much less about first generation biofuels and more about
the second generation. The makers of chippers and specialist energy wood
harvesters and forwarders were experiencing a sales boom and the rising demand
for woody residues for heat and power was generating many permanent rural jobs.
The push
in Sweden to replace oil and coal-fired power plants with municipal wastes and
woody biomass was well underway in 2006, and in 2014 it is effectively
complete. Wood chips, firewood and pellets fuel high efficiency, smokeless
residential heating systems, and industrial-grade pellets fuel larger systems.
Chipped forestry residues, and sometimes straw, fuel plants of every size.
It is this
combination of forestry management, an extensive and modern multi-track rail
system, and investment in high-efficiency biomass-fuelled plants, that has made
Sweden’s development of renewable energy based on biomass all possible. It also
required bipartisan political support and a well-educated population.
Australia,
on the other hand, has failed for several decades to pay proper attention to
the same factors, and instead has cut funding from research and let rail lines
go out of service. The failure of our carbon tax has not added to our
international reputation as deep thinkers.
However,
it is easy to see how we could catch up within only a few years. The basic work
has been done, the technologies are mature and the equipment available
off-the-shelf. The most important thing is to get far better informed about
what is working well in Sweden and elsewhere, including in China and Brazil.
Underpinning
the development of renewables in Sweden has been the carbon tax legislation of
1991, as well as laws that require all wet organic wastes and non-recyclable
flammable municipal wastes to be used for energy generation rather than
landfill. The carbon tax put pressure on industry and households to change
their ways and also created the necessary revenue stream to pay for changes to
the energy system.
The
legislation requiring solid and wet organic wastes to be used for energy forced
municipalities to develop energy plants—sometimes in concert with neighbouring
municipalities—and has reduced landfill volumes to just five per cent of total
waste generated. Municipal solid waste is 50 to 65 per cent organic matter and
up to 80 million tonnes a year of this non-recyclable flammable waste is being
used as a fuel.
In 2014,
renewable energy makes up just over 51 per cent of the Sweden’s energy. The
national target was for 49 per cent by 2020 but in typical Swedish style this
mark has been passed six years early. It is likely that it will be closer to 60
per cent by 2020, due to ongoing investment in biomass-fuelled heat and power,
and the drive to replace all fossil transport fuels with biofuels by 2030. The
rail system is already almost entirely electric.
Already,
many taxis and most new cars sold are configured to run on one of the ‘safe’
fuels—85% ethanol blend, biodiesel blend or upgraded biogas—or are hybrids of
one sort of another. All city buses in the conference city were running on
methane produced from the city sewage food residues. Buses in most larger
Swedish cities increasingly run on biofuels as well.
Today, the
Torsvik waste-to-energy plant has an identical twin being built beside it: a
combined heat and power plant that will use chipped residues from the forest
operations within 100 km radius. Soon it will be producing enough baseload
electricity for 25,000 households, or about 30 per cent of the municipality’s
needs. At the same time, it will generate nearly the same revenue by selling
heat energy into the district heating grid to supply the heat demand of 15,000
households.
Outside
the winter months, these two plants will provide almost all the heat energy
needs for the industry, institutions and households of Jönköping and adjacent
communities. The net result of the development biomass- and waste-for-energy in
cities and towns across Sweden is that the per-capita greenhouse gas emissions
for the country six tonnes per year—about half the EU average and a quarter of
ours.
Sunday 2 November 2014
Here more about the Swedish renewable energy model on Ockham's
Razor.
More
One part
of that figure is down to Swedes’ extensive use of wood in building and
construction—about 8 times the EU average. A larger part is due to converting
to use of renewable on-demand power and heat sources and in improving energy
efficiency, however.
Sweden
claims that energy use has effectively flatlined since about 1990 for all
sectors other than transport. The Swedish figures show that GDP and carbon
emissions can be decoupled. In Sweden, GDP and biomass track upward in step,
while the greenhouse gas emissions have fallen to significantly below 1990
figures.
Bioenergy
is the main renewable in Sweden and many other advanced countries, and it is
the largest source of renewable energy worldwide. We are almost alone in the
world in not having energy from biomass included into long-term federal
renewable energy policy.
In
Australia tens of millions of tonnes of economically available biomass (quite
apart from native forest harvest residues) go to waste annually. That amount
could provide 10 per cent of our baseload electricity, along with heating and
transport fuels. Development of these options would stimulate regional
economies, reduce imports, boost manufacturing and farm incomes, and create
permanent rural jobs. Sweden provides one example of how it can be done, and
there are many others.
Ockham’s Razor is a soap box for all things scientific, with short
talks about research, industry and policy from people with something thoughtful
to say about science.
Sinn Féin
Mountmellick - Serving The Community
Speaking
today after receiving confirmation from the European Parliament on the success
of Comhaltas Midland’s North West MEP, Matt Carthy, extended his
congratulations to the organisation.
