CTO Assessment - European Commission

VÄXJÖ
Fossil Fuel Free
Contact: Sarah Nilsson • Växjö Kommun Planning department • Post Box 1222
(Västra Esplanaden 18) • 35 112 Växjö • Sweden
Tel.: 46-470-41593 • Fax: 46-470-41580 • E-mail: sarah.nilsson@kommun.vaxjo.se
The city of Växjö has long been a centre
for trade, culture and education in southern
Sweden. It is located right in the middle
of Southern Sweden, 250 km north of
Copenhagen, in the province of Småland.
The ambition of the Municipality of Växjö
is to achieve a 100% RES supply for its
city, by undertaking activities in the fields
of biomass and solar energy and transport
sector.
Main aims and motivations
In 1996, the executive committee of Växjö
municipality unanimously decided to stop
using fossil fuels in the activities of the
municipality. Furthermore, the aims set by
the Climate Alliance, of which Växjö is a
member, have been unanimously accepted.
The initiative
The initiative, fitting the Agenda 21 development
scheme, was basically focusing an
integral exploitation of biomass resources,
maximum penetration of RE technologies
and a change of attitude with regard to
transport. Among the undertaken actions,
the following are worth to be emphasised:
Since the beginning of 80’s Växjö Energy
Ltd., VEAB, has worked towards
replacing oil by bio-fuel and developing
a combined heat and power plant in
Växjö. Major parts of the city are served
by district heating and new areas are
continually added.
The municipal housing company,
DHW roduction
Large collective
solar systems
Värendshus, has had encouraging experience
with solar panels. During 1998-
2003, the municipality pressed for the
use of solar heating by means of a general
subsidy to households for the installation
of solar panels.
At Växjö Public Transport Company,
buses run on 50% RME (rape-methylester).
Växjö and a number of companies
are co-operating to start production
of DME (di-methyl- ether) and
methanol, which can be extracted from
biomass.
Overall evaluation
The city’s accomplishments did not go without
recognition. In 2003 Växjö became
the proud winner of the Local Initiatives
Award for Excellence in Atmospheric Protection
for setting aggressive greenhouse
gas reduction targets and outstanding efforts
to achieve them.
Main innovative aspects
Noteworthy aspects of the initiative management
are: Free energy advice, Eco-labelled
electricity production, concerting in
DME production, together with projects
of public visibility such as “Energy efficient
street lighting”.
Enabling factors
Växjö has received an investment grant
from the Swedish Ministry of Environment
of approximately 9M Euro that generates
Project Objective Achieved Comments
Solar
Approx 1,600 m 2
(200 places)
850 m 2 (11 places)
CH and Power
Biomass Installations
Dwelling heated 300 installations
by biomass (Municipal subsidies)
environmentfriendlier
cars
323 m 2 (38 places)
-
Biomass
About 500 district
heating installations
each year (2000-2003)
More than 200 conversions
from oil heating to biomass
Transport
200 cars Less than 20
Solar energy stand
for 0.3 GWh 2003.
Slightly fewer
installations the
previous years.
Giving more than
6.5 GWh.
total investments of 34M Euro, in a number
of private and public organisations in order
to reduce the use of fossil fuels by 32
000 tonnes.
Another important factor to be considered
is the political consensus concerning Fossil
Fuel Free Växjö.
Challenges
Mostly, the work with Fossil Fuel Free
Växjö has been quite free from obstacles.
There is a lack of public awareness of
Växjö’s offensive targets. We are more
known among other municipalities in Sweden
and the world for our work, than we
are at home. The main problem is to
change peoples’ attitudes towards transports.
Political decisions at national level can
sometimes be problematic for our objectives,
for example tax legislation.
Comparing present project’s perception
with 1993, the initiative turned to be of
secondary importance due to municipality’s
priorities related with the budgetary
crisis,
Replication Potential
Many Swedish and European cities have
declared they should be Fossil Fuel Free,
Växjö was the first city to declare that.
Växjö’s system for monitoring fossil CO 2
has become a model for Swedish municipalities.
Experience replication capacity
has actually reached Japan, where the
Iwate Prefecture will introduce bio-energy
after studying Växjö’s experience.
RES increase and CO 2
reduction
In 2002, RES stands for 43% of the total
energy supply to Växjö (this includes transport
sector). If transport sector is excluded,
the increase was 52%, and the RES stands
for 67% 2002.
Reduction of CO 2
: 795 kg or 17.2 %/capita
(1993-2002). This can be split into a reduction
of 59.3 %/capita for heating and
an increase of 20.6 %/capita for transports.
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