Annual Report 2017
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Country Reports

SWEDEN

Maria Olsson Swedish Energy Agency


SUPPORTING POLICIES FOR OCEAN ENERGY


NATIONAL STRATEGY
In 2016, the Government together with several other political parties agreed on a long term bipartisan energy policy for Sweden. The agreement includes a target of 100 percent renewable electricity production by 2040 and no net emissions of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by 2045.

Additionally, in 2015, the Ministry of Enterprises, Energy and Communications enacted a national maritime strategy1 which identifies areas where action is needed to promote a sustainable development in the Swedish maritime sector. Ocean energy is one of many areas included, and there is on-going work to identify indicators for each area to track progress and its impact on the vision of the maritime strategy.


MARKET INCENTIVES
The long-term Swedish energy policy relies on economic policy instruments, including a carbon tax, international emissions trading and a renewable electricity certificate system. All these instruments provide incentives for renewable energy and do not specifically target a particular renewable electricity conversion technology, i.e. are technology neutral. There are no instruments in place to specifically incentivise ocean energy deployment.


PUBLIC FUNDING PROGRAMMES
Swedish governmental agencies support academic and private sector R&D at various stages of technology maturity. Funding providers include:

  • The Swedish Energy Agency, www.energimyndigheten.se, is responsible for facilitating a sustainable energy system in Sweden. As such, the agency funds research, business and technology development and technology demonstration relevant to the sustainability of the energy system and the energy industry sectors.
     
  • The Swedish Research Council, www.vr.se, which, among other things, is tasked to fund fundamental research and expensive equipment for research purposes within a large number of topic areas.
     
  • The Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems (VINNOVA), www.vinnova.se, supports business and technology development.

In addition, regional authorities may also grant funding.

In 2015, the Swedish Energy Agency initiated a national ocean energy programme with the aim to strengthen research and development capabilities and increase the cooperation between and within academia and industry. The programme will run for four years and has a total budget of around €5,7 million (53 MSEK).

A total of 16 projects have been provided with funding from the programme. The programme is now being evaluated in parallel with the planning of a new programme stage. The activities and priorities of the new programme are guided by the Swedish Energy Agency’s strategy for research and support to ocean energy, which was finalised in 2017 and is available on the website2.

The Swedish Energy Agency is also involved in OCEANERA-NET and OCEANERA-NET Cofund, which are collaborations between national/regional funding organisations, and EU to support the ocean energy sector and fund transnational projects.



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1. A summary in English can be found here: http://www.government.se/contentassets/9e9c9007f0944165855630ab4f59de01/a-swedish-maritime-strategy--for-people-jobs-and-the-environment
2. http://www.energimyndigheten.se/nyhetsarkiv/2017/energimyndigheten-antar-strategi-for-havsenergi/