Sweden currently produces approximately 2 TWh of wind power annually. This corresponds to 1.4 per cent of the country’s consumption.

Wind power production has increased dramatically in Sweden during the past few years, but is still low compared with other European countries. For example, wind power accounts for roughly 20 per cent of Denmark’s energy supply.

However, opportunities for increasing the share of wind power in Sweden are favourable. Wind resources are good, the country is sparsely populated, a robust electricity grid is in place and a large proportion of hydropower is in operation. The latter factor is significant, since hydropower is easy to regulate and can serve to balance wind power so that the electricity supply is always optimal.

Strong political support for continued expansion

In order for Sweden to achieve the EU’s goal for renewable energy production, it must increase its share of renewable energy to 49 per cent.

In June 2009, Sweden’s parliament voted to enact climate and energy bills that will make such expansion possible and will establish a national planning framework for wind power corresponding to an annual production capacity of 30 TWh by 2020, 20 TWh of which will be land-based.  Based on this, the Energy Agency has been tasked with reviewing the formulation of the current electricity certificate system.