Sweden A Success Story For Clean Energy

12 Jan 2013

Sweden has been ranked as the world's second best country at managing the transition to new energy architecture in a global benchmark index that hailed the Nordic country as "EU’s great success story for clean energy production".

Energy Architecture Performance Index (EAPI), presented by the World Economic Forum, benchmarks and ranks 105 countries globally on how well their energy system delivers economic growth and development, environmental sustainability and energy security and access.

The findings reveal that high-income countries have proven best at managing the transition to new energy. Norway ranks in first place in the index, where a strong energy policy coupled with multiple energy resources has delivered cheap, plentiful and relatively clean power and generated large national revenues.

Sweden came in at second place, followed by France. The report said that the Scandinavian country has made many positive steps in the right direct to create green and carbon-low energy architecture.

"Sweden is the EU’s great success story for clean energy production", it said.

In 1970, oil accounted for over 75% of Swedish total primary energy supply (TPES); then followed the oil shocks of that decade, forcing a rebalancing of the energy mix. Now the figure is 27%, mainly attributable to the use of residential heating oil. A further 65% of TPES comes from alternative or nuclear energy sources (the highest in the EU according to IEA data). Sweden generates 43% of electricity from hydropower and 39% from nuclear, meaning carbon emissions from the electricity and heat sector are the third lowest in the EU, when broken down by population.

With most of today’s energy demands easily met domestically, Sweden has been able to pursue a strong series of sustainable energy policy objectives. The Oil Free Society initiative and a green energy certification programme, where producers are granted one electricity certificate for every megawatt-hour (MWh) of renewable electricity generated (and often obliged to buy them in proportion to their supply or consumption profile) coupled with a carbon taxation system implemented in 1991,68 means Sweden has made significant progress around its CO2 and PM10 emissions, driving high scores across these emissions indicators.

With seven other European countries joining Norway in the top 10, the list is completed by New Zealand (5) and Colombia (6). No OPEC country features in the top 50, while the USA ranks 55th. Of the BRICS, Brazil leads in 21st place, followed by the Russian Federation (27), South Africa (59), India (62) and China (74).

Source: http://www.swedishwire.com/economy/15839-sweden-a-success-story-for-clean-energy-