Sweden aims to end oil dependency by 2020

The country of 9 million people has coastlines stretching hundreds of kilometers, which have given rise to a number of wind power and water power plants. A large new wind farm is being built off Sweden’s southern coast, expected to be online by 2009.

Sweden also has more forest per capita than any other EU country, allowing it to burn tons of biomass, which has helped make it one of the world leaders in renewable energy.

In 2003, 26 percent of the energy consumed in Sweden came from renewable sources — more than four times as much as the European Union average of 6 percent, according to EU statistics. Only 32 percent of its energy came from oil — down from 77 percent in 1970, according to Sweden’s own statistics. About one-third of Sweden’s energy is nuclear power, with the rest coming mainly from coal and natural gas.

So while the EU is striving to double its average use of renewable energy to 12 percent by 2010, Sweden is correct in setting the bar much higher, said Jacqueline McGlade, executive director of the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen, Denmark.

“Many countries are setting renewable energy targets. The difference with Sweden is that the targets are achievable rather than aspirational,” McGlade said. “This is because government departments across sectors in Sweden have built renewable energy into their long-term policies.”

That is evident in Sweden’s system for heating houses and apartment buildings — a key function in a country where the harsh winter usually lasts up to five months. Many Swedish counties use district heating that distributes steam heat, often produced by burning garbage or wood.

Today only 8 percent of Swedish houses are heated by oil, said Stefan Edman, an environmental adviser to the government. As of Jan. 1, those households get tax rebates if they switch to renewable sources.

“I’m an optimist in that area,” Edman said. “I think we can completely get rid of oil there.”

A much bigger challenge will be the transportation sector. Only 1 percent of the about 4 million vehicles on Swedish roads run on alternative fuels. But sales of so-called “environmental cars” that run on alternative fuel have almost doubled over the last year, and the parliament passed a law in December making it mandatory for all major gas stations to offer at least one alternative fuel at its pumps.

Sweden already uses more ethanol per capita than any other EU country, because of a pilot project where about 5 percent ethanol is mixed into the gasoline sold at gas stations, in order to reduce pollution, said Werling, the Agroetanol CEO.

Regardless of whether Sweden or the United States succeed in their ambitions, they are likely to pave the way for more ambitious renewable energy targets elsewhere in the world, said George Sterzinger, executive director of the Renewable Energy Policy Project, a Washington, D.C.-based organization working to boost the use of alternative fuels in the United States.

“Society sets a goal, and in moving toward that goal technology improves and you can set a better goal,” Sterzinger said. “Taking on that goal, it sets a sort of (example of) ’If Sweden can do it, why can’t we?”’

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