Highlights in 2017
New clean energy innovation policies and/or strategies
The Swedish Government has recently submitted a Bill to Parliament on Energy Policy (prop. 2017/18:228) which is based on the recent agreement between five of the eight political parties in the Swedish Parliament on long term energy policy. The proposals in the Bill include the targets that:
- The Swedish electricity supply should be 100 % renewable by 2040, and that
- The energy use should be 50 % more efficient by 2030 in relation to 2005, in terms relative to the GDP
In another Parliamentary decision, the goal that Sweden should have net zero emissions of Greenhouse gases to the atmosphere in 2045.
The Parliament decision based on the Government Bill Energy Research and Innovation for Ecological Sustainability, Competitiveness and Security of Supply (prop. 2016/17:66, bet. 2016/17:NU9, rskr. 2016/17:164) has established new guidelines and increased budget for energy R&I for the period 2017-2020.
Top clean energy innovation successes in 2017
A number of projects financed through the Swedish National Energy Research and Innovation Programme (SNERIP) have resulted in more widely recognized results. Among these are
- A project financed by the Swedish Energy Agency (SEA) together with Volvo Construction Equipment has been launched to develop and demonstrate electrification of all machinery in an open-pit mine for the extraction of gravel. The aim is to decrease the emissions of CO2 by 95%.
- A project together with SSAB and Vattenfall have been launched to explore the possibilities of switching from coal to hydrogen for the iron- and steel making processes, which could have a huge impact on GHG emissions and on the demand and infrastructure for renewable hydrogen.
- A study on The Life Cycle Energy Consumption and Greenhouse Gas emissions from Lithium-Ion Batteries has received a lot of media attention. A network for Life Cycle Analyses of vehicles has been initiated.
- The SEA has supported the R&D on fuel cells of the Swedish Company PowerCell Sweden AB since 2009. The company has now received its first big international order from a Chinese company.
- A demonstration platform for trucks and buses has led to highly visible results, e.g. a bus service in Gothenburg served by ten EV or EHV buses.
The entire Swedish Energy R&I programme is focused on clean and efficient, sustainable energy solutions, products and services. Some examples:
- In support of Mission Innovation, continued and increased efforts on strategic basic energy research have been carried out, including = a programme on innovative long-term energy research, and on researcher defined Strategic Innovation Programmes.
- The programme A Challenge from Sweden has been further developed to include both Swedish and international (mostly from MI countries) buyers’ groups for global Prize compe¬tition/Innovation procurement projects.
- The support to product development and commercialisation continues to expand and so far, more than 80 SME’s have received support in some form. Of these, thirteen have entered a stock exchange and are now valued at about 10 times as much as the total SEA support to all the 80 + companies.
Top activities delivered in support of the Innovation Challenges in 2017
Regarding engagement in the MI workstreams, Swedish actors have engaged primarily in the IC1 on Smart Grids, the IC5 on Solar Fuels and the IC7 on Affordable Heating and Cooling.
Sweden has been active in connecting the Mission Innovation Challenge 7 on Affordable Heating and Cooling to the Technology Collaboration Programmes (TCP) from the IEA network. The TCP network has the global expert network to support the goals of Mission Innovation and accelerate the international collaboration. The first joint collaboration project is already under preparation and further projects are under discussion.
Collaborations
Sweden’s collaborations entered into since the launch of MI has so far included projects and programmes within the Nordic Energy Research, the EU Horizon 2020 programme, the EU SET-Plan collaboration and the 22 IEA Technology Collaboration Programmes.