Will Sweden be oil free by 2020?
Sweden has put optimistic goals in place to become the world’s first completely oil-free economy by 2020. This seems impossible to many of us but, in fact, Sweden is way ahead of the UK in this area by a considerable degree.
For example, Sweden’s energy supply is already 45% renewable, compared with around 3% in the UK. Although we are aiming to be using 15% renewable energy by 2020, the goal in Sweden is to eliminate completely the dependency on oil by this time.
Sweden excelled at researching and implementing alternative energy after the oil crisis in the early 1970s. The use of oil for generating energy fell from 77% to just 32% by 2003. Some of the efforts the nation has put into place to accomplish such excellent results include tax exemptions for biofuels, encouraging flex-fuel vehicles, and enforcing petrol stations to provide alternative fuel options.
As a nation, Sweden has also invested heavily in hydro and nuclear power. The two sources together account for more than 75% of Sweden’s renewable energy production.
Although hydropower is less controversial, many groups in the UK and around the world are fiercely opposed to nuclear power generation. This aversion is usually based on the understandable fear of nuclear disaster following high profile incidents around the world. However, the need to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels may well require us to develop nuclear technology still further.
One way to minimise risk in nuclear power plants, indeed in any power generation plant, is with a thorough maintenance and condition monitoring programme. A key part of such a programme is the use of vibration monitoring, which can provide early detection of impending faults in systems with rotating or reciprocating action.
As the UK follows the path of Sweden and uses more nuclear power , technology such as Hansford Sensors should be used to ensure that the plant’s vital components are operating safely and at their full potential so that, oil free or not, we are producing the energy we create at the maximum level of efficiency, and minimum risk.
For vibration sensing product information, please click here.
