There are many district heating grids throughout the country that use whatever fuel is regionally available. In forested areas, forestry by-products are the obvious choice, and in the city of Stockholm, household waste is the fuel of choice. Organic waste is collected to produce the biogas used to power the city buses. Whatever the feed-stock, chimney exhaust is monitored so that the air is kept free of contaminants. STABILITY AND LONG-TERM GENERAL STEERING Johan Thorsell is the business support man-ager for Växjö, the “Greenest City in Eu-rope.” He credits brave politicians for creat-ing a carbon tax that required the “bad guys pay the good guys.” Priority was given to increasing the cost of all fossil fuel-based en-ergy rather than giving subsidies to renew-able energy. All renewable energy competed on equal terms, thus developing the whole industry rather than the political favourites. “The road map must be simple and easy to understand,” said Thorsell who champi-oned a simple pyramid to illustrate his key principles. Avoid energy needs (at the bot-tom level of the pyramid), streamline and reduce energy demand (mid layer) and use renewables (on the top). His city plans to be fossil fuel free by 2030. One of the main components in this plan is to encourage the use of wood as a building material in order to provide addi-tional wood waste for biofuel. Twenty-five per cent of each tree is used for biofuel in Sweden. Ten thousand square metres of a forest harvest makes 15m3 of oil and 1,000 kg of oil provides 11MWh of energy. The city is currently building its third-genera-tion power plant that will cover 50 per cent of local demand for electricity from wood waste (tops, roots and bark). It will provide 39 MW of electricity and 64 MW of heat and consume at top load 140 m3/h reducing the city’s CO2 production by between 10,000 to 20,000 tonnes a year. The estimated cost is 1.2 billion SEK. The city of Växjö is an interesting exam-ple of a green city because of the benefits it has reaped from its efforts. As the city has invested in technologies and programs to reduce CO2 emissions, there has been a notable economic growth at the same time. Bengt-Erik Löfgren, CEO of ÄFAB (a bio-energy consultancy), explained that green cities attract businesses that want to be asso-ciated with a sustainable vision. “The use of locally produced biomass has reduced the dependence on fossil fuels and has raised the GDP by 43 per cent,” said Löf-gren. He pointed out some impressive gains experienced in his town. Replacing fossil fuel-derived energy with locally sourced re-newables added 23,650 jobs. Curbing ener-gy use has added 13,000 jobs and recycling has added 18,600 jobs. HAMMARBY SJÖSTAD AND STOCKHOLM ROYAL SEAPORT A Swedish construction firm recently con-ducted a survey that found seven out of 10 Swedes want to live in a building with an eco label and would pay more for it. There are a number of choices of new construction built to high eco standards to use less energy or passive houses that are heated primari-ly with the heat generated by the electrical appliances, lighting, sunlight and through CONTINUED ON PAGE 27 Rotary Dryer System Heat Energy PelletPress Biomass Pelletizing & Energy Systems Pellet Plants | Dryers | Furnaces | Steam Boilers | Thermal Oil Heaters | Cogeneration Dieffenbacher USA, Inc. 2000 McFarland 400 Blvd. | Alpahretta, GA 30004 Phone: (770) 226-6394 | [email protected] www.dieffenbacher.com Dieffenbacher Biomass marapr14.indd 1 Canadian BIOMASS 2014-03-11 9:48 AM 19
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