Sweden To Reach 100% Renewable Electricity By 2040, According To Reuters
A Reuters report quoting a top Swedish regulatory official has revealed that Sweden is on track to be 100% renewable electricity reliant by 2040.
Writing on Tuesday, Reuters reported that a top regulatory official from Sweden, Anne Vadasz Nilsson, Director General of the Swedish Energy Markets Inspectorate, had said Sweden would be able to produce all its electricity from renewable energy source by 2040. Sweden already generates 57% of its 159 TWh power production from renewables such as hydro and wind, with the remainder coming from nuclear. The push to 100% renewable electricity, therefore, is not so far out of the question.
“We are not densely populated, we have a lot of good places to put land-based large-scale wind and there is large potential for that in Sweden,” Vadasz Nilsson told Reuters in an interview held this week on the sidelines of the Singapore International Energy Week conference.
Wind energy currently makes up around 10% of Sweden’s overall energy production, and the country is aiming to add a further 18 TWh of renewable electricity production by 2030. Further, Sweden isn’t planning to further subsidize nuclear energy, and is unlikely to add any new reactors.
“Nuclear is quite an expensive energy source due to safety regulations and funding for long-term nuclear waste management among other things,” she said.
“Renewables, meaning large-scale wind in Sweden, on the other hand, are cheaper and cheaper to commission and to run. This together with low wholesale prices will make it less likely that new nuclear power plants will replace the remaining ones when they are phased out due to old age.”
This is good news for Sweden, which has recently been seen to be regaining ground in the renewable energy sector. EY’s most recent Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index, published just this week, saw Sweden move up the list to 20th, as part of a larger return to form for European countries which had previously lost ground to emerging economies. Sweden was also found to be one of the leading countries for sustainability in the World Energy Council’s latest World Energy Trilemma Index 2016. Sweden placed third, after Denmark and Switzerland, with a triple-A score in the index rating, scoring well across the energy trilemma of energy security, environmental sustainability, and energy equity.
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