Energy Sweden

During a press conference with Sweden’s Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt on Wednesday afternoon Stockholm time, President Obama was asked what the United States could learn from Sweden. His first thought was sustainable energy development:

What I know about Sweden, I think, offers us some good lessons. Number one, the work you have done on energy I think is something the United States can and will learn from. Because every country in the world right now has to recognize if we are going to continue to grow and improve our standard of living while maintaining a sustainable planet, we are going to have to change our patterns of energy use. And Sweden I think is far ahead of many other countries.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/09/04/2568981/obama-sweden-energy/

Copenhagen District Heating for one million people

DENMARK | For over 40 years, Ramboll has helped develop one of the largest integrated district heating system in the world.

The system supplies heat to the city of one million people and is central to Copenhagen’s ambition of becoming carbon neutral by 2025.

As the District Heating  (DH) system based on CHP in Copenhagen was established and the costumers were connected to DH the overall efficiency raised and the costs to consumers were reduced.

Hence, it has been a very effective and successful initiative in order to save energy and to reduce the overall dependence on imported oil.

The heat supply act from 1979 also stated that heating companies are non-profit companies, the price of heat is the cost of the heat production and the distribution to the user. This is still the bases of the district heating in Denmark today.

Security of power supply, climate change and energy efficiency are top priorities on the global agenda.

 

Sources: Ramboll, Copenhagen District Heating System

Salon Bois Energie 2012 Report

SOURCE: The Salon Bois Energie returned to Saint-Etienne for the 2nd time at the end of March 2012.

Traversing the outdoor exhibition, the trail was flanked by a large array of foresty and wood fuel production machinery that was not only on show but exhibitors actively demonstrated the efficiency and flexibility of today’s operating environment, cutting, chipping, splitting, pelletising and packaging more than 500 m3 of wood into a range of
different woodfuels over the four days of the Exhibtion.

Continuing along the wood energy chain, two Exhibition Halls presented the brightest and best in wood heating equipment from 19 countries for industrial and local authority users (CHP and district heating plants).

Key Stats for 2012*

• 11 000 visitors (7 000 professionals and 4 000 general public)
• 357 exhibitors and represented companies (exhibitors (282) and represented companies (75))
• 19 countries exhibiting (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Luxemburg, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States of America)
• 24 500 m2 gross surface area (indoor and outdoor stands)
• 11 500m2 net surface area (indoor and outdoor stands)
• 700+ wood heating appliances on site (boilers, fireplaces, stoves, ovens etc.)
• 32 wood heating appliances fully operational on site
• 350+ wood fuel production machines
• 30+ wood fuel machines operating
• 500 m3 of wood worked by the exhibitors during the Exhibition
• 4 study tours
• 50+ conference presentations
  
  

Exhibitor or represented trademark 2013

1. BENET OY
2. FARMI FOREST
3. KESLA
4. MAASELAN KONE OY HAKKI PILKE
5. MW POWER OY
6. RENEWA
7. SAALASTI
8. SÄÄTÖTULI OY

Bioeconomy focus 2013 Spain, France, Denmark…

SOURCE: http://energyeurope.dk/en-GB/Energy-Europe-Home.aspx 

The global renewable energy market is evolving rapidly. And indeed, more people, companies, organizations and communities are going renewable. Last summer we were looking at the green technology and bioenergy outlooks in Spain. Agriculture and  waste management opens new avenues for companies willing to invest in bioenergy.

The website http://www.renewableenergyfocus.com/ provides valuable information about the olive oil potential in Spain.

Olive oil production residues do provide and interesting source for the Southern regions. Widely used throughout the Mediterranean and beyond for cooking olive oil, or its residues are also an important bioenergy source.

Across mainland Spain's southernmost region – the world's most important olive producing area – olive groves cover more than 1.4 million hectares. The vast majority of these groves produce olives for oil.

Yet Spain's own liquid gold has more than just gastronomic value. Energy professionals point out that the olive crop generates biomass with a fuel value of  1.3 million tonnes of crude oil per year as a by-product. It is an eye-catching figure in a country that imports about 99.5% of its oil and natural gas.

There is nothing new about olive power in these parts. Some rural homes have traditionally used olive wood cuttings to fuel domestic fires. The energy-rich  olive stones left once the pulp has been extracted have also been used to power boilers.

However over the last 15 years there has been a move towards a much  more comprehensive use of olive residue as a bioenergy source. In 1995 the first plant powered by olive residue opened in the province of Cordoba, in central Andalucía.

Now there are 15 power stations in Andalucía using olive biomass, generating 164 MW bioenergy per year, according to Maria José Colinet, Director of  Renewable Resources and Energy Infrastructures at the Agencia Andaluza de la Energía (Andalucian Energy Agency).

And a further three are due to come online with a combined power of 21 MW, Colinet says. And despite the recession, which has struck Spain hard, she says that there are still a “large amount of investment proposals coming through”.

In May 2013 for the first time the trade fair Energy Europe will be taking place in Denmark.

Energy strategy 2050

"The 20th century was largely driven by access to cheap and  plentiful coal, oil and gas. However, in the 21st century we  will have to find other means of satisfying our energy needs"

Danish Ministry of Climate, Energy and Building

The reasons are many: The results are conclusive

Interest in the usage of renewable energy has grown immensely especially in the north and east of Europe. Many European countries have made vast funds available, for the conversion to these new resources.

The trade fair Energy Europe will meet the Scandinavian and eastern European industries but also their governing bodies, opening up trade with the booming Wind – Solar and Bio-energy markets.

The organizers estimate between 10.000 - 15.000 Visitors

Denmark is well known as a very climate friendly country with its many various energy companies. The ”Bella Center” - a modern trade fair and congress centre in Copenhagen - is the perfect place to present this yearly international event.

Approximately 400 worldwide renewable energy companies from more than 10 nations will be on show, thereby covering the new generation and usage of renewable energy diminishing our dependency on “fossil fuels” thereby cutting energy costs and increasing the economy.

Testing the many faces of bio economics

This frightening picture is reminding me about a blog visualizing microbes and bacteria.

I hope to find those representations soon to have a model.

Nevertheless, we’re going to create our own picture and graphics gallery.

We need to invest time in creating cartoons and images.

There’re tons of pictures describing process technology solutions, but the challenge is to create visual effects to show events that aren’t visible to the eye.

Juha Mentu does have pictures from microscopic “body counts”.

We’ve the artistic freedom to show the mystery of microbial activity with inventive graphical effects.

WIREC USA and Finnish Biofuel collaboration

Minister Mauri Pekkarinen participated in the WIREC 2008 conference in Washington, March 2008. The blog post below was posted March 5, 2008. Pekkarinen spoke about R&D collaboration between USA and Finland. Finland is taking steps towards increased production of Biodiesel from non-food biomass. Neste Oil is a leading company in this field with projects in Finland, Singapore, and Central Europe.

Stora Enso and Neste Oil are building a pilot plant for cellulosic biodiesel production from forestry residuals and waste wood. Full scale operations will start in Finland in the time bracket of 2010 to 2015. UPM has a somewhat different approach. The newest sign for that is the pleriminary announcement about a bio-oil production from low value wood in Kajaani.

We'll learn more about the Kajaani project in the near future. Below is information from the Wirec conference.

Update from WIREC 2008 | reegle Blog: "WIREC 2008 is underway, and it’s off to a great start. United States Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte welcomed the participants and gave a call to action for the three conference days ahead. He was followed by United States Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer, who laid out the opportunities presented by renewable energy and the challenges ahead.

WIREC 2008 is enjoying exceptionally high attendance, with nearly 3000 participants registering for the ministerial conference. More than 100 official country delegations sent over 600 official party delegates, including more than 100 Ministers.

In conjunction with the ministerial-level plenary sessions and discussions, ACORE’s business conference also began today. The trade show opened this morning to over 5000 registered participants. CEOs and other high level executives from every renewable energy sector were in attendance, mingling with official government delegations from the ministerial conference.

The night will close with a reception sponsored by BP, bringing the first night of the conference to a successful end. Tomorrow the breakout sessions on each of the focal points begin, and conference participants are excited to have a chance to discuss the specific challenges they see ahead."

Biofuel made from Wood

Another good alternative to produce Biofuel is to use wood as the raw material. There are three basic approaches that are the most promising for making liquid fuels from wood. These are producing: methanol, ethanol, and diesel fuel (of course other liquid fuels from wood are possible to produce).

Currently Shell and Choren Industries finished building a manufacturing plant for BTL (biomass-to-liquid). In this plant forest residues, waste wood, fast-growing timber and agricultural residues can be used as biomass for production purposes (Choren).

There are four significant reasons why wood fuel has been proven to be beneficial (LC Energy):

• It is inexpensive (cheaper than domestic gas, oil, LPG and electricity).

• It will not run out if it comes from sustainable woodlands.

• It is carbon neutral (90% less than when burning fossils).

• It reduces the dependence on fuel imports and price uncertainty

Is it good for the environment? lJOkdnhkelifhjkndskhsidndslifdfhd Image by http://www.mass.gov/
As said before, wood burning doesn’t release more CO2 than when it biodegrades; therefore it doesn’t add more pollution to the environment.

A problem that might rise, if biofuel from wood is mass-produced, is that the companies have to be aware that they should cut trees sustainably. Because if all the forest where felled, it will lead to deforestation and habitat destruction. As a result of that possibility there has to be a conservation plan in all companies that allows chopping some trees to produce biofuels, but then re-foresting the area and taking care of the animal and plant species that live there.

World Water Week, Stockholm, August 17 - 23, 2oo8

In the fast growing urban areas of the developing world, clean, efficient infrastructure and management of sanitation and waste facilities will require considerable up-front financial investments.

The economic, social and environmental benefits down the road will far outweigh this initial expenditure.

The World Water Week will take place in Stockholm, August 17 - 23, 2oo8. For a staggering 2,6 billion people, lack of access to adequate sanitation is a major and daily threat to their health and well-being.

This bears tremendous social and environmental costs, of which premature deaths, degradation of living quarters and the environment, and reduced access to education are but the few.

Parallell global trends - population and economic growth, increasing energy demand, changing diets, etc. - increase the amount of water required for development.

While increased agricultural production for food and bioenergy represent interesting new sources of income for rural farmers all over the world, these opportunities must take into account the water-constrained biophysical reality of the planet.

Reducing fossil fuel use will increase demand for bioenergy production. While the second generation of bioethanol may be produced on wastelands or from cellulose, croplands may also be converted for their production.

This increases competition for land and water resources. Climate change mitigation will increase the demand for biomass-based carbon sequestration.

Source: www.worldwaterweek.org

Solar Energy: The Spanish and German Competition

The solar photovoltaic energy presents itself as one of the most benevolent energies with the environment. The capacity to convert solar light directly into electricity, without emissions of CO2, allows us to visualize a potential solar era to mitigate the global warming.

Nowadays solar energy faces several challenges, the biggest one is decreasing the price per kWh since it is quite high compared to other technologies. According to the ASIF inform each time that the production is doubled the installation cost is reduced in 18%, which means that this issue can be solved by increasing the production of solar photovoltaic energy. Spain and Germany had already started to take measures and they position themselves as the leading countries in the development of solar energy.

Image by http://www.solarbuzz.com

These countries seem to have a competition of who has the largest PV power plant in the world. Germany has a project at Branden where juwi company is installing a 40-megawatt solar power plant using state-of the-art thin-film technology. The juwi group’s philosophy is to produce as quickly as possible solar-generated electricity at competitive prices independently of promotion schemes.

“Within just a few years the price of solar electricity produced on your own rooftop will be cheaper than the power supplied by the energy utilities” says juwi co-founder.

But Spain is striking back, this year a 60 MW solar field is being built in Olmedilla de Alarcón, near Cuenca. The company in charge of this development is NOBESOL, which divided this project in 2 phases: in the first phase they will install 24 MW in a period of 9 months and in the second phase they will install 36 MW in a period of 7 months.

Image by http://www.nobesol.com/

As these countries continue their race to be the world’s leader in production of solar energy other countries seem to be left behind. Maybe is time for more countries to join this promising way of producing energy.

Bioenergy Today

From today until the 29^th of May Sweden will be hosting the 3^rd edition of the World Bioenergy Conference in the city of Jönköping. Today’s conferences will cover the topics about US-Sweden bioenergy cooperation and Brazil-Sweden bioenergy cooperation. These conferences are of great importance since US and Brazil are the world largest producers of ethanol and Brazil is considered as the world's first sustainable biofuels economy and the biofuel industry leader. Let’s hope that these conferences will reduce the criticism that some sceptics have about ethanol who argue that it takes too much fossil fuel to produce this alternative fuel. For more information on the conference visit:
http://www.elmia.se/en/World-Bioenergy/