Proportion of biomethane in Swedish natural gas vehicle fuel sales hits high of 73%
25 August 2015
NGV Global reports that official Swedish statistics show that the proportion of biomethane in natural gas fuel sales in the country in now 73%—a historically high level and evidence of rising demand. The biomethane percentage has risen in recent years, from around 60%.
The high proportion of biomethane makes Sweden a pioneer and shows that the green transition is fully possible.
—Anders Mathiasson, managing director at the Swedish Gas Association
In the first six months about 80 million standard cubic meters vehicle gas was sold—a slight increase compared to the first half of 2014. The figure corresponds to more than 800 GWh or 61,000 tons of CNG.
In the last 15 years, the Swedish market for natural gas fuel has grown steadily. The number of CNG vehicles in the country is now above 52,000.
73% biomethane sounds impressive.
52,000 CNG vehicles is not such a big deal - they have 5 million cars on the roads, so this is 1%.
Thus they are supplying 73% of the fuel for 1% of the vehicles.
This is hardly a "green transition".
Posted by: mahonj | 25 August 2015 at 10:19 AM
Biomethane is only part of the Swedish story. They also get 9% of their electricity from biomass - there are a lot of trees there. Biomass also has a dominant position in the Swedish heat market, to a large part as fuel in district heating systems. If you include that, biomass generates more energy than anything else in Sweden;
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2010/06/biomass-generates-32-of-all-energy-in-sweden.html
Posted by: ai_vin | 25 August 2015 at 05:57 PM
More: Sweden consumes a substantial amount of electricity per capita (15,000 kWh per person/year). Few countries consume more energy, yet Swedish carbon emissions are low compared with those of other countries. The average Swede releases 5.1 tons of carbon dioxide per year into the atmosphere, compared with the EU average of 7.9 tons and the US average of 19.1 tons.
The reason for this low emission rate is that about 78 per cent of electricity in Sweden comes from nuclear power and hydroelectric power, neither of which generates carbon emissions. Cogeneration from combined heat and power (CHP plants), accounts for somewhat above 10 per cent of the electricity output in Sweden, and these are mainly powered by biofuels. About 8 per cent of the electricity is imported, and the remainder, about 4 per cent, comes from wind power.
But this is only for electricity. As a nordic country the Swedes have a great need for heating so if do include heating the picture changes. Hydro and wind don't generate waste heat (at the temps needed), Nuclear does but - For several decades, Sweden’s energy policy has aimed to phase out the country’s nuclear power programme. At its peak, Sweden had 13 reactors in commercial operation. Today, three plants with a total of ten reactors remain. But in June 2010, the Swedish Riksdag (parliament) decided to allow new nuclear power plants to be built in the country, rescinding the law phasing out nuclear energy. New plants, however, may be built only to replace decommissioned ones, and only on the same sites as the existing power stations.
Because of NIMBYism those sites are NOT near enough to the Swedish population centers to use their waste heat in district heating systems. Biomass fueled plants don't have these siting problems.
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Posted by: Janna | 26 August 2015 at 01:46 PM