Sweden: Oil Independence Without Additional Nuclear Power
Sweden is not only talking the talk about oil independence, but walking the walk. Although Sweden is much smaller than the United States, I think it's important to point out where other countries are making strides, where the U.S. is lagging behind. The most powerful part of this article appears to be the various people and communities working together to reach a solution. I believe relying solely on Mr. Bush or our federal government to solve our oil dependence problems is a mistake. The solution must start with individuals and might be better addressed at local community levels within theU.S.
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Sweden is to take the biggest energy step of any advanced western economy by trying to wean itself off oil completely within 15 years - without building a new generation of nuclear power stations.The attempt by the country of 9 million people to become the world’s first practically oil-free economy is being planned by a committee of industrialists, academics, farmers, car makers, civil servants and others, who will report to parliament in several months.The intention, the Swedish government said yesterday, is to replace all fossil fuels with renewables before climate change destroys economies and growing oil scarcity leads to huge new price rises.
“Our dependency on oil should be broken by 2020,“ said Mona Sahlin, minister of sustainable development. “There shall always be better alternatives to oil, which means no house should need oil for heating, and no driver should need to turn solely to gasoline.“
According to the energy committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, there is growing concern that global oil supplies are peaking and will shortly dwindle, and that a global economic recession could result from high oil prices, ww4report.com said.Ms Sahlin has described oil dependency as one of the greatest problems facing the world.
“A Sweden free of fossil fuels would give us enormous advantages, not least by reducing the impact from fluctuations in oil prices,“ she said. “The price of oil has tripled since 1996.“
A government official said:
“We want to be both mentally and technically prepared for a world without oil. The plan is a response to global climate change, rising petroleum prices and warnings by some experts that the world may soon be running out of oil.“
Sweden, which was badly hit by the oil price rises in the 1970s, now gets almost all its electricity from nuclear and hydroelectric power, and relies on fossil fuels mainly for transport. Almost all its heating has been converted in the past decade to schemes which distribute steam or hot water generated by geothermal energy or waste heat. A 1980 referendum decided that nuclear power should be phased out, but this has still not been finalized.The decision to abandon oil puts Sweden at the top of the world green league table. Iceland hopes by 2050 to power all its cars and boats with hydrogen made from electricity drawn from renewable resources, and Brazil intends to power 80% of its transport fleet with ethanol derived mainly from sugar cane within five years...
Sweden has a head start over most countries. In 2003, 26% of all the energy consumed came from renewable sources--the EU average is 6%. Only 32% of the energy came from oil--down from 77% in 1970.
The Swedish government is working with carmakers Saab and Volvo to develop cars and lorries that burn ethanol and other biofuels. Last year the Swedish energy agency said it planned to get the public sector to move out of oil. Its health and library services are being given grants to convert from oil use and homeowners are being encouraged with green taxes. The paper and pulp industries use bark to produce energy, and sawmills burn wood chips and sawdust to generate power.
Full Article
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Sweden is to take the biggest energy step of any advanced western economy by trying to wean itself off oil completely within 15 years - without building a new generation of nuclear power stations.The attempt by the country of 9 million people to become the world’s first practically oil-free economy is being planned by a committee of industrialists, academics, farmers, car makers, civil servants and others, who will report to parliament in several months.The intention, the Swedish government said yesterday, is to replace all fossil fuels with renewables before climate change destroys economies and growing oil scarcity leads to huge new price rises.
“Our dependency on oil should be broken by 2020,“ said Mona Sahlin, minister of sustainable development. “There shall always be better alternatives to oil, which means no house should need oil for heating, and no driver should need to turn solely to gasoline.“
According to the energy committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, there is growing concern that global oil supplies are peaking and will shortly dwindle, and that a global economic recession could result from high oil prices, ww4report.com said.Ms Sahlin has described oil dependency as one of the greatest problems facing the world.
“A Sweden free of fossil fuels would give us enormous advantages, not least by reducing the impact from fluctuations in oil prices,“ she said. “The price of oil has tripled since 1996.“
A government official said:
“We want to be both mentally and technically prepared for a world without oil. The plan is a response to global climate change, rising petroleum prices and warnings by some experts that the world may soon be running out of oil.“
Sweden, which was badly hit by the oil price rises in the 1970s, now gets almost all its electricity from nuclear and hydroelectric power, and relies on fossil fuels mainly for transport. Almost all its heating has been converted in the past decade to schemes which distribute steam or hot water generated by geothermal energy or waste heat. A 1980 referendum decided that nuclear power should be phased out, but this has still not been finalized.The decision to abandon oil puts Sweden at the top of the world green league table. Iceland hopes by 2050 to power all its cars and boats with hydrogen made from electricity drawn from renewable resources, and Brazil intends to power 80% of its transport fleet with ethanol derived mainly from sugar cane within five years...
Sweden has a head start over most countries. In 2003, 26% of all the energy consumed came from renewable sources--the EU average is 6%. Only 32% of the energy came from oil--down from 77% in 1970.
The Swedish government is working with carmakers Saab and Volvo to develop cars and lorries that burn ethanol and other biofuels. Last year the Swedish energy agency said it planned to get the public sector to move out of oil. Its health and library services are being given grants to convert from oil use and homeowners are being encouraged with green taxes. The paper and pulp industries use bark to produce energy, and sawmills burn wood chips and sawdust to generate power.
Full Article
posted by The Optimistic Cynic at 7:24 AM
2 Comments:
Dude, you have no idea what you are talking about.
We will build new nuclear reactors in the next decades, or at least we will not close any. We will still have 4 times as much nuclear power per capita as the US.
And considering that quote:
“There shall always be better alternatives to oil, which means no house should need oil for heating, and no driver should need to turn solely to gasoline.“
We are already there. Electricity and biofuels are better for heating and no driver need turn solely to gasoline today, because we have ethanol.
But there is no way in hell we can make enough ethanol to replace oil.
And the reason we have so much "renewable" power is that we have lots of giant rivers and giant dams, and also giant forests from which we make heating fuel. Not really representative of the global average.
If you would read thie first few lines of the article, you would see that the article is not saying that Sweden will have no nuclear power but that it's trying to kick the oil habit without building a new generation of nuclear plants:
"Sweden is to take the biggest energy step of any advanced western economy by trying to wean itself off oil completely within 15 years - without building a new generation of nuclear power stations."
That's not too far from your comment of.."or at least we will not close any."
In response to your comments, I've added the word "additional" to my post title. Hopefully that helps with your confusion.
I was posting my thoughts on an article originally posted by John Vidal of The Guardian. If you have any further objections to his reporting, you can contact him directly.
Thanks!
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