Sweden is the third EU Member State to celebrate its 2024 National Bioenergy Day on this year's listing of Bioenergy Europe's National Bioenergy Days. Bioenergy is Sweden's largest energy source, and like Finland, the country has excellent opportunities to capture biogenic carbon dioxide from the forest industry, other biorefineries, and energy production facilities enabling radical emissions reduction through carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS).
The European Bioenergy Day campaign aims to shed light on the increasingly central role that sustainable biomass is playing in the EU’s energy transition.
According to Bioenergy Europe, bioenergy is a vital component of the EU’s energy system and economy, producing 85 percent of the EU’s renewable heat, representing alone one-third of renewable energy sector jobs, and saving enough carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to cover the annual emissions of Spain.
Awareness campaign
The campaign provides key facts on biomass and the bioenergy industry and celebrates people, projects, and companies contributing to achieving European carbon neutrality.
In the past years, Bioenergy Europe launched the European Bioenergy Day campaign to provide tangible, first-hand examples of how bioenergy impacts the lives of EU citizens.
This year’s motto is “Our Shared Steps Towards the Energy Transition” and the European Bioenergy Day campaign aims to share these stories, highlighting how bioenergy supports the local (bio)economy, fosters innovation, and boosts the EU’s competitiveness.
As the EU advances towards its climate goals, bioenergy continues to expand its role as a key ally in the transition.
The new EU mandate will address critical issues such as climate change, energy security, and the rising cost of living.
In this context, bioenergy is a key ally for the EU’s economy, sustainability, and energy security.
Facts
Background European Bioenergy Day
First launched in 2018, the European Bioenergy Day campaign is powered by Bioenergy Europe and relayed across Europe by both national and international partners supporting the belief that bioenergy is more than a renewable energy source, but a reliable path that will lead Europe to achieve its renewable energy transition.
Each year, Bioenergy Europe calculates the Bioenergy Day of the European Union (EU) and each Member State, showing how long a Member State or the EU could meet their energy needs using only bioenergy until the end of the year.
Every National Bioenergy Day is accompanied by a story, showcasing the impact of bioenergy in the EU, whereas the European Bioenergy Day is highlighted at the annual European Bioenergy Future conference.
Bioenergy is the leading energy source
Bioenergy offers a viable alternative to fossil fuels and it is a key player in carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technology thanks to bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), and biochar through pyrolysis with carbon capture and storage (PyCCS).
According to the Swedish Bioenergy Association (Svebio), bioenergy is the leading energy source in Sweden today (2023) accounting for 40 percent of final energy usage.
The Swedish energy system has undergone a major transformation over the last five decades, in part prompted by the two oil crises in the 1970s and the rollout of district heating, further pushed by the introduction of a carbon tax in 1991.
In the 1970s imported oil and coal were the dominant fuels for heat, transportation, and some power, whereas today coal is all but found in the iron and steel sector whereas oil remains in the transport sector.
With the absence of a national gas grid infrastructure, fossil gas has played a minor regional role.
Sweden was early with the introduction of high-blend ethanol (E85) in 2005, along with biodiesel, and bioCNG for cars and heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs).
For electricity generation, bioenergy accounts for a modest 7.4 percent of Sweden’s power gen mix.
This is derived from private- and municipal biomass- and waste-fired combined heat and power (CHP) plants for district heating and recovery boilers in the forest industry.
Like Finland, Sweden too has excellent opportunities to capture biogenic CO2 from the forest industry, other biorefineries, waste-to-energy (WtE) plants, anaerobic digestion (AD) – and biomethane (aka renewable natural gas – RNG) production facilities.
As in Finland and elsewhere, bioenergy with carbon capture, utilization, and storage (BECCUS) the captured biogenic CO2 can either be utilized as CO2 displacing fossil CO2, for instance in the food- and beverage industry, or liquefied for future storage – the Swedish Energy Agency has recently launched a call for tenders for BECCS.
Biochar through pyrolysis, whereby a share of the biogenic carbon is “locked” as a solid and used for soil sequestration or as a bio-component in other long-lived products such as concrete, is also gaining traction.
Not least in district heat plants as the heat from the exothermic pyrolysis process can be utilized.
