Sweden Plans Wood-fueled Future

[jpak]

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,406937,00.html

Sweden has set itself the goal of achieving total independence from oil by 2020. The country is already covering many of its energy needs with renewable resources such as bioethanol to fuel its cars and wood to fire its power plants.

Are forests the fuel of the future?If Swedish entrepreneur Per Carstedt is right, the next big energy revolution will really be a step backward. "The industrial age began with the transition from wood to fossil fuels," he says. "Now we're going in the other direction."

Carstedt reaches into a bucket of wood chips. This is the raw material he wants to convert into modern society's lifeblood -- fuel. But before wood can power a car engine, it needs to be chemically processed. And that is exactly what's happening on the top floors of the Örnsköldsvik plant in northern Sweden. Carstedt steps into a large room crowded with steel pipes and aluminium tanks. On the end of each pipe is a safety seal.

"Government regulations," the fifty-year-old Carstedt says with a smile. The material flowing through the pipes is quite popular on dark Scandinavian nights: alcohol -- or rather ethanol to be specific. "Nobody is allowed to tap it here without permission," he says.

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[mdmc]

1. back to the future

:kick:

[no_hypocrisy]

2. It wouldn't surprise me if some future administration made plans to invade

Sweden to control the wood supply.

[Faygo Kid]

3. I'm of Swedish descent, and I'm all for using the wood.

[Peace Patriot]

4. Thanks for this link! The article blames John D. Rockefeller for the

early decision to go with oil rather than biofuel! (--down about half way, a minor point of the article, except re: US stupidity). It's informative on the biofuel issue--and it makes you want to cry that Sweden is so far-thinking--BUT, the article says not one word about the impacts to forests, wildlife and fish, and to our planetary environment, of the use of trees for fuel. They might regulate this in Sweden, but if it catches on, we're talking worldwide catastrophe, and, indeed, the end of our world.

Sounds like a really ba-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-ad idea!!!

[AndyTiedye]

7. The Eastern USA was Once All Forested

We had already cut down most of our forests by the time the oil age started.
We also have more people, and consume more energy per-capita.

OTOH, it is not nearly as cold in most of the US as it is in Sweden.
It should not require as much energy to stay warm here,
and the weather is OK for walkiing and cycling more of the time.
We get more sun (usually), so solar power works better.

We're going to need to use a bit of everything,
combined with a lot of conservation,
to get through this.

[AndyTiedye]

5. If They Can Manage Their Forests Sustainably…

…(that is a pretty big IF)

[jpak]

6. The Swedes have a long tradition of sustainable forestry

They will get it right.

:)