Sweden: Greatest Potential Market in the Wind Energy Sector

Sweden presents an attractive market, due to promising wind resources, the large size of the country and relatively small population. With enough land for the installation of numerous wind turbines, whose production would surpass internal demand, Sweden could export electricity and thereby earn more revenue, while assisting countries without similar assets and growing demand for electricity.

Although the support system in Sweden (which is the green certificate and quota obligation system) has been less successful than the feed-in-tariff system, installed wind farm capacity in the country doubled in 2007 and 2008, resulting in an increase of government support for both onshore and offshore wind energy sectors. At the beginning of 2009, there were 10 onshore projects under construction and 18 with permits.

According to Frost & Sullivan’s green energy team, the electricity generated from wind energy is expected to rise from 2.3 TWh in 2008 (with a capacity of 1 GW) to 24.5-29.1 TWh in 2020 (with a capacity of about 9-11 GW, of which offshore wind energy capacity will be around 2-3 GW). According to the Swedish Wind Energy Association, the technical wind power potential in Sweden is estimated to be around 540 TWh/year.

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