Malmö in the south of Sweden is one of the leading cities in the world for sustainability. By 2020 Malmö hopes to be climate neutral and by 2030 have all government services running with 100% of renewable energy. This is significantly higher than the European Union’s target for Sweden which is only 49% of renewable energy by 2020. The city hopes to hit these targets by a number of lifestyle and systemic changes.
These include a waste-to-energy facility in the city. This facility turns waste from 500,000 citizens into electricity and heat energy. In 2008 it expanded to become the largest plant in Northern Europe. The capacity of the plant is 630,000 tons of waste annually and it produces 1.4 TWh of heat and 0.3 TWh of power a year. It also has one of the most energy-efficient incineration plants in Europe. The plant has very high environmental standards with very low emissions, for example, it includes a number of wet flue gas treatments which helps reduce harmful gases being released into the atmosphere. The plant supplies power to the national grid and heat to the district heating system of Malmö, this covers 60% of the city’s heat demands.
Therefore Malmö is investing in its future with this major industry integrating into the fabric of the urban environment which helps locally with environmental issues of waste, electricity and heating.
Contributed by: Claire Wilkinson
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