Nordic Green News – 11 September, 2020

Swedish government increases biofuels demands

The Swedish government’s policy of fuel change has been in place since 2018. For so called “low blend”, fuels retailers have an obligation to include a minimum share of biofuels in their products. In 2020 this has been 4.2% biofuels in petrol and 21% in diesel. From July, 2021, this will be increased to 6% and 26% respectively.

 

Linköping forces through fossil-free vehicles

Linköping, a city in Sweden, has a goal to be carbon neutral by 2025. As part of this, new requirements are being introduced so that the vehicles used in municipal contracts must be powered by fossil-free fuels. The requirements to be included in the tender documents are designed as a staircase. By 2025, the vehicles and machines used in the contract procurement will be powered by fossil-free fuels. From January 2022, 50% of the vehicles will be powered by fossil-free fuel, the following year, 75% will be powered by renewable fuel and in 2025, all vehicles will only be powered by fossil-free fuel.

 

Batteries from Volvo buses to be reused

A battery for an electric bus has a lifespan of 7 to 10 years. But, after a few years performance degrades to the point where it does not have the capacity to run a bus with good efficiency, Despite that, there is significant power left that can be used elsewhere. Volvo Buses and Stena Recycling have developed a global collaboration to give used bus batteries a second life as energy storage. For Volvo buses the collaboration means that they turn the cost they previously had for the recycling of the batteries to now become a sale of the old batteries.

 

Vattenfall’s new CEO says Sweden needs to get used to price differences

Anna Borg will take over as CEO from November 1. She worked for almost two decades in the energy industry, before leaving Vattenfall in 2014 to become Nordic Manager at payment service company, Klarna. In 2016, she left Klarna to return to Vattenfall as business area manager for Vattenfall Markets and a member of Group management.

 

Amongst other comments to the media she said “We have no shortage of electricity in Sweden. However, we do not always have the opportunity to have electricity in the right places where we need it ... Now we have had an extreme situation this winter and spring with a lot of power in northern Sweden and very large differences between areas. I think we will see that in the future as well.” Internally she commented that the market was changing very fast, and under her leadership Vattenfall “needs to become better at focusing and prioritizing and executing on what we have started,.”

 

SeaTwirl signs two long-term cooperation agreements

The wind power company, SeaTwirl has signed letters of intent with two specialist companies for the development and manufacture of composite parts for struts and blades, and ball bearing solutions for the company's wind turbines, called S2. The intention is to jointly develop cost-effective and robust solutions for S2 and to enter into long-term cooperation agreements. For stays and blades, SeaTwirl will collaborate with Elitkomposit, which is based in Uddevalla, Sweden. For the ball bearing solution, the partner is IMO, which is based in Gremsdorf in Germany. 

 

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