Sweden has quietly had its momentary romance with renewables, as has much of the rest of Europe.
In 2018, the World Economic Forum was tooting its own horn about how the Nordic country was hell bent for leather on installing wind turbines to fully achieve one of its 'renewable' climate goals by 2030.
Formerly humming along on hydro and nuclear power, Sweden was going to save the planet by putting up turbine towers and turning off its reactors.
The WEF proudly crowed that Sweden was going to be climate cult Green years ahead of schedule.
Sweden is on target to meet one of its renewable energy targets years ahead of schedule, and it’s thanks in part to wind turbines.
In 2012, Norway and Sweden reached a joint agreement to increase their production of electricity from renewable energy sources by 28.4 terawatt hours (TWh) by 2020.Sweden then increased its target, with the aim of adding another 18 TWh by 2030.
Taking into account the number of wind turbines already built, plus planned wind turbine investments for the remainder of the year, Sweden is on track to hit its 2030 target - possibly by the end of the year.
Big Green plans were in the works.
capacity is expressed in MW or TW
— George Mavrotas (@Mavrogiorgos) April 9, 2019
energy is expressed in MWh or TWh
Leases and projects were approved, betting the farm on wind.
Sweden to reach its 2030 renewable #energy target this year https://t.co/WLdgd0pvuc pic.twitter.com/6CYsVxVcWP
— World Economic Forum (@wef) July 22, 2018
Keep in mind that Sweden and Norway both supply their 'excess' power, produced by nuclear and hydro, to the European continent to make up capacity-wise for what those renewable schemes and premature closing of fossil fuel/nuclear plants have left them short of.
By 2020, Sweden's energy mix had shifted away from nuclear power to wind and hydroelectric power. Several Swedish nuclear plants were also closed prematurely simply because excessive Swedish climate taxes made running them unprofitable.
In 2020 more than 60% of Sweden's power generation came from hydropower or wind power. 💪
— Sweden (@Sweden) March 15, 2021
📷: Anders Westergren/Svevind AB#windpower #renewableenergy #markbygden #energy #sweden pic.twitter.com/SZBDAH67kx
And within a year, problems began to bubble to the surface as some of the largest wind farms being constructed came online and began producing electricity. A rising demand for power was not being met, and they began to realize there were costs inherent in wind power generation that had to be paid, whether the country needed the electricity at the time or not.
The debate was already in full swing, only three years after the country committed to a totally 'green' future and boasted of its renewable achievements. The inescapable reality was that the country simply wasn't generating enough power for all the blades they had spinning.
Sweden splits over nuclear power
The country’s opposition parties and even the public are rethinking Sweden’s earlier commitment to ending nuclear.
Sweden faces a looming problem of electricity supply, but the country is divided over whether nuclear is part of the solution.
...Sweden's nuclear debate moved into high gear on New Year's Eve as the state-owned power company Vattenfall permanently shut down a fully functional nuclear reactor at the Ringhals plant on the west coast, citing low profitability.
The war in Ukraine broke out shortly thereafter, changing the entire dynamic of the European continent's energy profile, which relied on Russian gas to fill the Dunkelflaute droughts and rainy day power generation gaps of unreliable renewables.
Swedish power became even more crucial but even more expensive for everyone.
By 2023, the Swedish government had had enough of the farce. Sweden announced it was scrapping the rest of its NetZero goals and turning back to nuclear.
Sweden has just dealt a severe blow to the globalist climate agenda by scraping its green energy targets.
In a statement announcing the new policy in the Swedish Parliament, Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson warned that the Scandinavian nation needs “a stable energy system.”
Svantesson asserted that wind and solar power are too “unstable” to meet the nation’s energy requirements.
Instead, the Swedish Government is shifting back to nuclear power and has ditched its targets for a “100% renewable energy” supply.
Sanity in Sweden as government abandons “renewables” for nuclear.
— Peter St Onge, Ph.D. (@profstonge) June 26, 2023
“The Swedish people wish to ground their economy in an energy source that is physically sound and secure, unlike renewables which are neither.”https://t.co/RSI5WY8N8j
They didn't hesitate to act on their intentions with the new permitting rules for nuclear going into effect on 1 January 2024, only two months after the parliament approved the proposal.
On January 1, 2024, new rules for when nuclear power plant reactors may be built took effect in Sweden, allowing new reactors to be established in areas where nuclear power plants have previously not been located.
Background on Adoption of the New Rules
On November 28, 2023, the Committee on Industry and Trade (Näringsutskottet) approved a government proposal to allow for the creation of additional nuclear reactors. (Näringsutskottets betänkande 2023/24:NU5.)
The following day, the Swedish parliament approved the government proposal to allow the building of additional nuclear reactors and to amend the Environmental Code (Miljöbalken (SFS 1998:808)). Specifically, the code, as amended, will allow more than 10 nuclear reactors to be in operation at the same time and for nuclear power plants to be built at places besides the current locations of Karlshamn, Forsmark, Oskarshamn, and Ringhals. Under the new rules, approval of a new site for a nuclear power plant will still require an endorsement from the municipality in which the nuclear power plant would be created, as currently specified in chapter 17, section 6 of the Environmental Code.
The move is part of the Swedish government’s initiative to increase nuclear power production in the country to provide as much clean, fossil-free electricity as possible. A new path for increased nuclear energy production was announced by the government on November 13, 2023, which included long-term investment in nuclear power in recognition of the government’s estimate that Sweden needs to double its electricity production over the next 25 years to meet the demands of expanding the electricity system. The plan includes building two additional full-scale reactors with a minimum 2500 megawatt output by 2035. The government also announced it would issue state guarantees for the production of nuclear energy.
Not a minute too soon, either, as Swedes were howling about the outrageous electrical rates they were having to pay for their own electricity as they subsidized keeping the lights on for the Germans.
Maybe by coincidence, this is exactly what I told her state secretary two years ago: All European neighbours will pay a high price for the German nuclear phase-out. That's exactly what we can see now! Not a surprise.
— Björn Peters (@Bjoern_Peters) December 12, 2024
At that point last year, a ten-minute shower in southern Sweden was costing the equivalent of $5 to heat the water. Deputy Prime Minister Ebba Busch had shot down the proposal for a new cable from the energy poor Swedish south to Germany that summer because, as she said, the German energy market was too inefficient for her to burden her citizens with more of the wild price swings it caused, and she was proven correct time and again.
Two other things were happening at the same time last fall, as Sweden formally moved towards nuclear energy as a state priority.
The government cancelled 13 planned offshore wind farms in the interest of national security.
With war in close vicinity, Sweden finds itself in a serious security situation. Defence interests must carry significant weight when these kinds of decisions are made. We also have a special responsibility within NATO for security in the Baltic Sea. (2/4)
— Pål Jonson (@PlJonson) November 4, 2024
As of this March, a cautionary tale emerged which could also be painted as an 'I told you so' by every clear-eyed climate denier.
The largest, most ballyhooed wind farm in the country, what they'd called the 'jewel' of their renewable plans, as the location and potential had been so thoroughly researched, it was a 'sure thing,' and which had only begun delivering power in 2021, fell into bankruptcy.
Investors Learn Brutal Lesson From Sweden’s Wind Farm Woes
Located on a blustery plateau just south of the Arctic Circle in Sweden, Markbygden Ett became the crown jewel of Europe’s largest onshore wind development when it went online late last decade. Despite a long-term contract assumed to be safe, it became an expensive lesson in the dangers of making deals based on the predictability of energy prices — or the weather itself.
In the years since the 179 turbines started spinning, operator Markbygden Ett AB has racked up hundreds of millions of euros in losses and suffered a heavy reputational blow. That traces back to a critical misstep: signing a 19-year contract known as a power purchase agreement that included unrealistic expectations about how much electricity the farm would produce around the clock. When there wasn’t enough wind, or the turbines were offline, Markbygden Ett had to make up the difference by buying electricity on the spot market, where hourly prices are dynamically determined by availability.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine compounded the problem. That caused power prices to soar, triggering the project’s spiral into financial distress.
And what about the weather...?
Ah.
...Cloud Snurran AB, which owns Overturingen, wrote in a 2023 report that the park was generating as much as 15% less electricity than had been expected. And at the height of the energy crisis in late 2022, Aldermyrberget struggled with low wind and ice on turbine blades, its owner said in an annual report. Citing “extraordinary weather conditions,” EB EEE LHI Vindkraftpark Aldermyrberget AB described its deal as “extremely unfavorable.”
Ice on turbine blades in Sweden.
Whoda thunk?
Probably anyone with half a lick of common sense.
Insult to Swedish consumer injury was a report released yesterday that should put paid to any more Green schemes of wind power in their unicorn manes.
If you want cheap, reliable energy, wind isn't ever going to be it, and that it ever could have been has been the big lie from the get-go.
‘Wind energy more expensive, less stable and less secure,’ Swedish report finds
A new study by Swedish think-tank the Scandinavian Policy Institute (SPI) has warned that the promotion of wind power as being cost-effective and reliable was misleading — at best.
Sweden has strongly developed solar and wind power production capacity yet, at the same time, the SPI researchers found that electricity prices had become more volatile.
Making matters more pressing, future electricity demand was, they said in the report titled New Policy Brief: Electricity at any price?, bound to go up – in part mandated by the so-called “green” transition.
Onshore wind-power has been sold as the best option by many politicians, who claimed it could increase grid power generation without jeopardising it. The scientists who wrote the SPI report said the reality was different.
They noted that the functioning of the Swedish electricity system could not be guaranteed if the share of weather-dependent power generation increased sharply from what they already considered to be a high level.
...“In order to avoid future crises, we must be clear about its real functioning and its real costs. It is time to put the national economy and system stability back at the centre of Swedish energy policy.”
As Sweden retreats from its wind-induced madness and transitions post-haste back to energy sanity...
🇸🇪 Sweden’s Nuclear Return
— Johan Christian Sollid (@sollidnuclear) February 4, 2025
For the first time in over 40 years, a nuclear reactor is being built in Sweden.
Swedish reactor developer Blykalla has partnered up with @UniperSweden, @ABBgroupnews, @NCC_AB and @KTHuniversity to build the electrical SEALER-E prototype reactor.
1/4 pic.twitter.com/PzLGnJvIK5
...it makes you wonder how long it will be before the rest of Europe follows suit.
For so long, the biggest virtue signalers have also been the biggest hypocrites.
France casually exporting 11GW of electricity right now
— Michael McLean (@cornoisseur) June 9, 2023
Lots of nuclear electricity being consumed by Germany 😎 pic.twitter.com/oT1krHoh2j
And yet, suddenly, here we are.
BREAKING NEWS Germany drops opposition to nuclear power
— Yellowbull (@Yellowbull11) May 19, 2025
Berlin has signalled to Paris it will no longer block French efforts to ensure nuclear power is treated on par with renewable energy in EU legislation
This is a massively positive development for nuclear power in Europe 🇪🇺 pic.twitter.com/4UHVjSmdN5
It's been a long, awfully expensive fever dream.
I hope they all recover.
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