Sweden Set For 100% Renewable Energy By 2040

57 per cent of Sweden’s power was generated from renewables last year.

A regulatory official has stated Sweden is on track to run completely on renewable energy in the next 25 years.

Sources such as wind and hydropower made up 57 per cent of Sweden’s power last year, with the rest being generated by nuclear power.

The countries “large potential” for onshore wind power is now planned to be utilised with the goal of being fully fossil-fuel free by 2040.

This goal was set by the Prime minister of Sweden, Stefan Löfven, last year at the UN General Assembley.

Director of Swedish Energy Markets Inspectorate Anne Vadasz Nilsson told the media, “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,”. 

As the country becomes more cost-efficient, the output of wind power is steadily increasing and wind energy is looking like it will replace nuclear energy as the country’s power source.

“Nuclear is quite an expensive energy source due to safety regulations and funding for long-term nuclear waste management among other things,”  Vadasz Nilsson said.

She stated that large-scale wind renewables are becoming increasingly cheaper to run and commission, which combined with low wholesale prices will decrease the likelihood of new nuclear power plants replacing the old ones when they are phased out.

Currently, four nuclear reactors are being phased out, and the fluctuating nature of wind energy could be maintained by combining it with hydropower forces and other inter-country connection.

“The base load from our [current] hydropower plants and the high degree of interconnection with neighbouring countries… together with a more developed market for demand-side response will safeguard capacity even on cold winter days when the wind is not blowing,” Vadasz Nilsson said.

Nordic Countries Leading the Way with Renewables

Nordic Countries are already world leaders in renewable energy with Denmark producing a huge 140 per cent of their electricity needs with wind power alone last year, giving the leftovers to neighboring countries.

Iceland uses renewable energy for almost 100 per cent of their power source thanks to their hydropower investment geothermal energy generation.

Other European countries such as Belgium, France, Ireland, Norway and Finland also moved up places in the most recent bi-annual EY Renewable energy country attractiveness index (RECAI).

It’s thought the the Brexit vote along with other factors contributed to the United Kingdom seeping to an all-time low at 14th position.