Examensarbete i Hållbar Utveckling 88
Wind Power Energy in Québec and in Sweden
Can the province of Québec (Canada) learn from Sweden in the field of wind power energy?
Wind Power Energy in Québec and in Sweden
Can the province of Québec (Canada) learn from Sweden in the field
of wind power energy?
Justin Rouillard
Justin Rouillard
Uppsala University, Department of Earth Sciences Master Thesis E, in Sustainable Development, 30 credits Printed at Department of Earth Sciences,
Geotryckeriet, Uppsala University, Uppsala, 2012.
Master’s Thesis E, 30 credits
Examensarbete i Hållbar Utveckling 88
Wind Power Energy in Québec and in Sweden
Can the province of Québec (Canada) learn from Sweden in the field of wind power energy?
Justin Rouillard
Supervisor: Mikael Höök
Evaluator: Kjell Aleklett
Content
1. Introduction ……….5
1.1 Aims and Scope ……….5
1.2 Comparing Québec and Sweden ……….. 6
1.3 Layout ………....7
1.4 Limitations ………...8
2. Pollution and Energy Systems ………....9
2.1 The Situation in Québec ………....9
2.2 The Situation in Sweden ……….12
2.3 Comparison between Québec and Sweden ……….20
3. Wind Power Energy ………..23
3.1 History of Wind Power Energy ………...23
3.2 Wind Power in Québec ………25
3.3 Wind Power in Sweden ………...27
3.4 Comparison between Québec and Sweden ……….29
3.5 Advantages and Disadvantages of Wind Power ……….29
4. Government Regulations and Incentives to Wind Power ………..34
4.1 Québec’s Strategy ………34
4.2 Sweden’s Strategy ………...36
4.3 Comparison between Québec and Sweden ………..39
4.4 Other Examples in the World ………. 39
4.5 Wind Economics ………... .43
4.6 Recommendations for Québec and Sweden ……….. .45
5. Conclusion ………,.46
6 Acknowledgement ………..48
7. References ………..49
8. Appendix ………59
Wind Power Energy in Québec and in Sweden: Can the province of Québec (Canada) learn from Sweden in the field of wind power energy?
JUSTIN ROUILLARD
Rouillard, J., 2012: Wind Power Energy in Québec and in Sweden: Can the province of Québec (Canada) learn from Sweden in the field of wind power energy? Master Thesis in Sustainable Development at Uppsala University, No., 60 pp., 30 ECTS/hp.
Abstract: For several years now it has been indicated by the scientific research that human activity has a definite impact on the temperature of the Earth. There are different ways of reducing anthropogenic climate change, to consume less energy for instance, but also to use renewable sources of energy. Since the wind power market is growing rapidly lately, it seemed interesting to compare how different countries have developed wind power energy and how they intend to do it in the future. Sweden has developed wind power energy for a long time and since Québec, a Canadian province, is similar to the Scandinavian country in many aspects; it was interesting to determine if the province of Québec in Canada can learn from Sweden in the field of wind power energy. When looking to stimulate wind power on their respective territories, it seems that Sweden and Québec have very different approaches to the development of that energy. In Québec, the governmental policy is criticised because it gives too much latitude to private companies when it is almost the opposite in Sweden, where the government is charged to have introduced too many restrictions and environmental policies that hinder the development of wind power. The conclusion is that Québec can learn from Sweden and from Sweden’s mistakes in the wind energy sector, but also from more successful countries like Denmark and Germany. First, Québec could benefit from having a more decentralised development strategy i.e. giving more power to local authorities and local populations. Second, Québec needs stronger economic incentives providing a stable market for developers.
Keywords: Sustainable Development, Wind Power, Québec, Sweden, Energy Systems.
Justin Rouillard, Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University, Villavägen 16, SE- 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden.
Wind Power Energy in Québec and in Sweden: Can the province of Québec (Canada) learn from Sweden in the field of wind power energy?
JUSTIN ROUILLARD
Rouillard, J., 2012: Wind Power Energy in Québec and in Sweden: Can the province of Québec (Canada) learn from Sweden in the field of wind power energy? Master Thesis in Sustainable Development at Uppsala University, No.88, 60 pp., 30 ECTS/hp.
Popular Summary: For several years now it has been indicated by the scientific research that human activity has a definite impact on the temperature of the Earth. In fact, human activity on the planet, like energy consumption, causes climate change. There are different ways to reduce climate change, to consume less energy for instance, but also to use renewable sources of energy. A renewable source of energy is a form of energy coming from natural resources: like wind power, hydro power and solar power to name a few. They are in opposition to non-renewable energy sources like fossil fuel.
Since the global wind power market is growing rapidly lately, it seemed interesting to compare how different countries have developed wind power energy and how they intend to do it in the future. Sweden has developed wind power energy for a long time and since Québec, a Canadian province, is similar to the Scandinavian country in many facets; it was interesting to determine if the province of Québec in Canada can learn from Sweden in the field of wind power energy. In fact, it is coherent to compare them because they have almost the same population and are similar in plenty of social, economic, political and geographical aspects. For example, both states have low greenhouse gas emissions compared to other developed countries, because most of their electricity is generated by hydroelectricity for Québec and by hydro as well as nuclear power for Sweden. However, Sweden is more advanced than Québec in policies reducing polluting emissions and fighting climate change.
Concerning wind power energy, although Sweden appeared to be behind several other European countries, the Scandinavian country was always in front of Québec, part of North-America where environmental consciousness is less developed. In fact, today, Sweden has approximately the double of the installed capacity of Québec. This can be partly explained by the program of tradable green certificates instituted by the Swedish government in 2003 as well as the aggressive renewable energy targets.
When looking to stimulate wind power on their respective territories, it seems that Sweden and Québec have very different approaches to the development of that energy. In Québec, the governmental policy is criticised because it gives too much power to private companies when it is almost the opposite in Sweden, where the government is charged to have introduced too many restrictions and environmental policies that hinder the development of wind power. The conclusion is that Québec can learn from Sweden and from Sweden mistakes in the wind energy sector, but also from more successful countries like Denmark and Germany. First, Québec could benefit from having a more decentralised development strategy i.e. giving more power to local authorities and local populations. Second, Québec needs stronger economic incentives providing a stable market for developers.
Keywords: Sustainable Development, Wind Power, Québec, Sweden, Energy Systems.
Justin Rouillard, Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University, Villavägen 16, SE- 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden.
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1. Introduction
For several years now it has been indicated by the scientific research that human activity has a definite impact on the temperature of the Earth. In the long run, this impact could be devastating for any living creatures on the planet since it may harm several species including humans and create significant disasters. Therefore, we now need to fight that anthropogenic climate change and one way to do it is to reduce our greenhouse gases emissions. There are different ways of reducing our emissions, to consume less energy for instance, but also to use renewable sources of energy.
There are several renewable sources of energy, the main ones are: the sun, the wind, the hydropower, the heat from the earth and the biofuels. These forms of energy generate no or few greenhouse gases emissions. Solar energy is used to supply heat, light, hot water and electricity1. The main disadvantage of solar powered energy is that the present technology is not very efficient. Another form of energy, hydropower, is a very efficient way of producing electricity using dams that can retain water and use the motion of this element to generate power. Unfortunately, significant dam projects are not considered totally green because they trigger the flooding of immense territories, which can significantly disturb ecosystems. Geothermal energy is quite fascinating because it pumps the heat stored in the soil and transforms it into electricity. Although that energy has a very high efficiency, it is not widely spread partly because it requires high installation costs, suffers from a lack of infrastructure and can usually only be generated in volcanic areas 2. Finally, biofuels is the term used to define biomass transformed into liquid fuels, made from organic or food waste products. Fuels need to contain 80% of renewable materials to be considered biofuel3. This form of energy is indeed interesting but it still produces a certain amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Also, it has been shown by researchers that a world using agriculture for both food and fuel would not be sustainable4.
1.1 Aims and Scope
All these renewable sources of energy are interesting; however I decided to focus my research on wind power energy for many reasons. Wind power generally means converting wind energy into electricity by using wind turbines. During the last decade, wind power energy has increased tremendously and is expected to continue growing for the years to come. According to the World Wind Energy Association, the global market for wind turbines has reached a new high of 42 GW installed capacity in 2011 for a total of 239 GW worldwide5. The International Energy Agency estimates that 12% of the
1 Renewable Energy World, 2012. Types of Solar Energy.
2 Conserve Energy Future, 2012. Advantages & Disadvantages of Geothermal Energy.
3 Alternative Energy Biofuels, 2012. Biofuels.
4 Johansson et al., 2010. Agriculture as Provider of Both Food and Fuel.
5 World Wind Energy Association, 2012. World Market recovers and sets a new record: 42 GW of new capacity in 2011, total at 239 GW.
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World’s electricity could come from wind power by 20506. Since the wind power market is growing rapidly lately, it seemed interesting to compare how different countries have developed wind power energy and how they intend to do it in the future. Hence, in this paper, since Sweden has developed wind power energy for a long time, I will try to answer the following question: can the province of Québec in Canada learn from Sweden in the field of wind power energy?
1.2 Comparing Québec and Sweden
I decided to compare these two areas because I know them well and they have a lot in common. First, they have around the same population. Québec (Figure 1), which is a majorly French speaking province in the Eastern part of Canada, has a population of 8.0 million7 which is very close to Sweden (Figure 2) with approximately 9.5 million inhabitants8. They also have a low density of population: 4.97/km2 for Québec9 that has an immense Nordic territory with few people and 22.9/km2 for Sweden10. Furthermore, a great part of the electricity production is from hydroelectricity:
96% for Québec11 and 45% for Sweden12.
Both Sweden and Québec have a Nordic climate which could possibly influence their energy needs.
Québec is characterized by three different geological regions. First, in the north, the Canadian Shield Forest Lands: a complex hydrological network of more than a million lakes and rivers which favours the development of hydroelectricity. Then, in the middle of the province lies the St Lawrence Lowlands region which consists of the best land for agriculture and finally in the south-east, the Appalachians; an old mountain chain13.
6 International Energy Agency, 2012. Wind Energy.
7 Statistique Canada, 2011. Tableau 1-1 Estimations trimestrielles de la population, perspective nationale
— Population.
8 Statistics Sweden, 2012. Population statistics.
9 Statistique Canada, 2011. Tableau 1-1 Estimations trimestrielles de la population, perspective nationale
— Population.
10 Statistics Sweden, 2012. Population statistics.
11 MRNF, 2012. Production d'électricité.
12 Ekonomifakta, 2011. Elproduktion.
13 The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2012. Physiographic Regions.
Figure 1: Québec (dark red) in Canada, source: Où suis-je?. 2010.
Figure 2: Sweden (dark red) in Europe, source: Lawline Careers – Map of Sweden.
2012.
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As for Sweden, the country can be divided in two main regions. First, “Norrland” in the north, which counts as the two thirds of the country, is mostly mountainous and filled with important rivers used for hydroelectricity14. In the south, “Svealand-Götaland” is mainly flat and is home of most of the Swedish population. Also, coastlines are important for wind power energy because the wind is greater there than in inland regions. Sweden has a considerable coastline of about 3 000 km15: Skagerrak and Kattegat straits on the west coast, the Baltic Sea on the south end as well as the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia on the east coast. Québec is also more or less surrounded by water; there are the James Bay and Hudson Bay in the west, the Hudson strait and the Ungava Bay in the north as well as the Saint-Lawrence Gulf in the south. The province of Québec is also home of one of the most important rivers in North America: the Saint-Lawrence River.
Also, both states are highly industrialized and their population have a high standard of living. In 2010, The Gross Domestic Product per capita of Québec (about 32 000$)16 is comparable to the Swedish one (approximately 36 000$)17. For a long time, Québec and Sweden have been democratic states electing their representatives. Finally, Sweden is often seen as a country with an important welfare state. Even though Québec is far from being on the same level, the province is the area in North America where the Welfare State is the most significant and where the role of the government is the most entrenched.
The reason why I chose to compare Sweden with Québec instead of Canada is not only because of the characteristics mentioned earlier, but also because in Canada the regulation of renewable sources of energy is of provincial jurisdiction. This means that each of the ten provinces has different laws and incentives concerning energy resources.
Also, since Canada is a huge country with geographical diversity and a much larger population than Sweden it would have been quite difficult to compare the two countries.
Moreover, it is important to note that even though the Government of Canada decided to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol in December 2011, the Québec Government is very much concerned to fight pollution and determined to cut greenhouse gas emissions aiming to honour the engagements previously established by the protocol for Canada.
Thus, again in this aspect, Québec is more in tune with Sweden than Canada.
1.3 Layout
In this report I will first give an overview of the evolution of pollution patterns and energy balances in both states since the 1950’s. This part is important because it gives a good idea of the context in which wind power is developed. Then, in the second part I will focus on wind power. This part will include the positive and negative aspects of this form of energy as well as their importance in both Québec and Sweden. The third part will focus on the economics and the government regulations relative to wind power. I
14 Columbia University Press, 2007. Encyclopedia - Sweden - Land, People, and Society.
15 CIA World Factbook, 2012. Sweden Coastline.
16 Statistique Canada, 2011. Produit intérieur brut en termes de dépenses, par province et territoire.
17 International Monetary Fund, 2010. Sweden.
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will also provide examples of other countries that have interesting approaches to wind power management and give recommendations to both Québec and Sweden.
1.4 Limitations
This report is a comparative analysis of two different strategies for the development of wind power in Québec and in Sweden. The supporting literature mainly consists of scientific articles, public organisation reports and newspaper articles. These sources are mainly less than ten years old, even though some of them have been published earlier and are used for historical facts. When using examples from other countries than the two studied, I decided to choose them from the Western World. Indeed, if other countries would have been used from outside the Western World, the economic, social and political contexts would differ completely, which in turn would make it difficult to perform comparisons. Therefore, this is why Denmark and Germany were used instead of China and India for instance. Also, sub-chapters on advantages and disadvantages of wind power and on wind economics were added to expand the research and hopefully find new paths of solutions.
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2. Pollution and Energy Systems
2.1 The Situation in Québec 2.1.1 Air Pollution Control
The province of Québec has been concerned with the air quality since the 1950’s. At that time, the government mostly wanted to eliminate odours and stains of industrial origin associated with local atmospheric pollution. However, we had to wait the 1970’s to see the government introduce actual laws related to air pollution. In 1972, the Law on the Environment Quality was passed, that was the starting point of considerable investments in more efficient production technologies related to the energy use and the environment18. After signing the Geneva Convention in 1979, the first international agreement dealing with air pollution19, the Canadian and Québec Governments took numerous actions. For instance, they instituted programs to reduce emissions of different substances like sulphur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) in order to fight acid rain. These programs will be renewed with stricter objectives in 1984, 1990 and 1994 since the goals were always accomplished. Again in 2000, the Government of Québec proceeds to readjust the sulphur dioxide emissions to a maximum of 300 000 tons (metric) per year for 2005 and to a maximum of 250 000 tons per year for 2010. Fortunately, we can now say that these objectives have been successfully attained.
We all know that forests are an important aspect to fight climate change since trees are known to purify the air of its carbon dioxide. Québec has large areas, especially in the North, covered with the boreal forest. That is why the province is a big producer of pulp and paper products. Concerning the protection of its forests, the Government of Québec seems to be late compared to other States. In fact, only 8.5% of Québec’s immense territory is considered protected area in 2009 while the World average is around 12%20. Since most of Québec’s electricity is produced by hydroelectricity, the province does not have to deal with the pollution of coal or oil powered plants in great number. In fact, it is important to remember that air pollution can come from plants in the United-States or neighbouring provinces. Nonetheless, in Québec, most of the greenhouse gas emissions come from the transport sector (43.5%) compared to approximately 17% for the World average (Figure 3).
18 MDDEP, 2002. La qualité de l'air au Québec : historique des événements marquants.
19 United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, 2012. The 1979 Geneva Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution.
20 Guilbeault, S., 2009. Alerte! : Le Québec à l’heure des changements climatiques.
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Figure 3: Distribution of Greenhouse Gas emissions in Québec in 2009, source: MDDEP, 2008. Inventaire des émissions des principaux contaminants atmosphériques au Québec en 2008 et évolution depuis 1990.
This is a sector where Québec could improve its level of greenhouse gas emissions. The province of Québec has a low population density compared to other countries; it is one of the reasons why we need to use transports a lot. Nonetheless, we should not forget that the province is still guided by a North American mentality of using cars profusely. It takes a long time to change habits but more efforts should be put in stimulating people to use the public transportation system. More money needs to be invested in that system if we compare Québec with other Canadian provinces. In British Columbia, the government invests 150 dollars per inhabitant in public transportation; it is 105 dollars in Ontario, 60 dollars in Alberta and only 40 dollars in Québec21. Also, since Québec’s electricity production generates very little greenhouse gas emissions, it could be a good idea to electrify an even greater part of the transportation system.
2.1.2 Climate Change
The Kyoto protocol is the result of a United Nations convention on climatic changes held in Japan in 1997. The protocol was ratified by 191 states. However, only 37 industrialised countries agreed to reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by an average of 5.2% in relation to the 1990 levels22-23. The other countries, even if they ratified the protocol, are considered “developing countries” and it was understood that they should focus on economic growth for the moment. The 37 countries are given much latitude when it concerns the way to reach their target. For instance, they can use clean development mechanisms or emission trading programs. Canada ratified the Kyoto protocol in 2002 and was planning to reduce its GHG emissions by 240 million tons yearly which accounts for 6% in relation to the 1990 level benchmark. However, since very little concrete
21 Guilbeault, S., 2009. Alerte! : Le Québec à l’heure des changements climatiques.
22 Radio-Canada, 2012. Situation canadienne.
23 United Nations, 2012. Kyoto Protocol.
43,50%
28%
14%
7,90%
5,90% 0,80% Transport
Industrial
Residential, Commercial and Institutions Agriculture
Waste
Electricity
11
actions were done and no objectives were met during all these years, every new GHG objective became harder to meet.
In December 2011, the Government of Canada, guided by the Conservative party that had recently gained a majority of seats in the House of commons chamber, decided to withdraw from the Kyoto protocol arguing that it was harming the Canadian economy24. In Canada there is an important provincial disparity in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and in terms of opinions towards Kyoto. For example, the province of Alberta which emits 5 times more GHGs per capita than the province of Québec strongly opposes the protocol. Out of the ten Canadian provinces, only Québec and Manitoba are known to be in favour of Kyoto. Hence, when Canada deserted the Kyoto objectives last year, the Québec Government did not miss the opportunity to openly criticize the Canadian Government accusing them to renege on its promises and fall in line with the United States25. The Government of Québec also voted a motion to underline that Québec will continue to strive towards the Kyoto targets despite of the Canada withdrawal26.
For a long time, the province of Québec had the “green province trademark” thanks to the importance of hydroelectricity in its energy balance. Indeed, as we can see in the following table (Table 1), the production of electricity in Québec releases very few emissions of GHGs per kWh.
States Emission Intensity (g CO2 / kWh)
United States 710
California 470
France 56
Canada 267
Québec 25
Table 1: Intensity of GHG emissions for different networks of electricity production (numbers in CO2 equivalent), source: Langlois, P., 2008. Rouler sans Pétrole.
In fact, Québec has a rate of GHG emissions 50% lower than the rest of Canada27. In 2006, Québec was also the first North-American state to equip itself with a plan to reach the Kyoto objectives, the most ambitious plan in North America. The plan replicated the European GHG reduction objective of cutting back, by the year 2020, at least 20% below 1990 levels. Québec was also the first North-American State or province to institute a carbon tax. Nowadays, this tax on fossil fuels brings back about 200 million Canadian Dollars per year to the Québec Government, which serves to finance the public transport system and energy efficiency programs28. Québec was also the second state in North
24 The Canadian Press, 2011. Canada first nation to withdraw from Kyoto Protocol.
25 Lalonde M., 2011. Quebec cap-and-trade follows Kyoto reversal.
26 Le Devoir, 2012. En bref - Québec et Kyoto.
27 Handal, L., 2012. Harper vs. Kyoto: where does that leave Québec?
28 Guilbeault, S., 2009. Alerte! : Le Québec à l’heure des changements climatiques.
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America, after California, to establish a set of ambitious norms forcing car companies to build more energy efficient and environmentally friendly cars.
Since 2008, Québec is part of the Western Climate Initiative (WCI) together with California, Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia. At the beginning, the WCI had been signed by seven U.S. states, but all of them resigned except California. The WCI is an agreement of different jurisdiction towards fighting climate change and finding ways to reduce GHG emissions29. For instance, one of the decisions taken by the WCI is to implement a cap-and-trade system to address climate change. So far, only California in October 2011 and Québec in December 2011 have chosen that sort of system which will officially set in motion in January 201230.
The cap-and-trade system means that large industrial emitters will need to reduce their carbon footprint, buy credits if they are above their objective and they can also sell credits if they are below their GHG emissions goal. This system is the starting point of a real North American carbon market that should take form in a close future. Québec is also determined to fight climate change on a local level. In April 2009, the government announced a program called “Climat municipalités” that would provide 10 million dollars to different cities willing to quantify their GHG emissions and elaborate plans to reduce them. In summary, Québec is a “state” that is at the forefront of environmental regulations and climate change in North America. However, it might not be the same story when comparing Québec to Europe or Sweden.
2.1.3 Energy Balance
First of all, when talking about energy in the province of Québec it is essential to mention that Hydro-Québec who manages the electricity production and distribution in Québec is a company owned by the Government. In fact, it was created as early as 1944 to nationalise the private company that distributed the electricity in the Montreal area. Later in 1963, the Government took over nearly all private companies that were operating in a questionable way: high prices, poor service and sky-high profits. The move was also linked to the development of economic nationalism among the French speaking population. Since Québec has numerous important rivers with high potential in the North of the province, it was obvious that hydroelectricity would be a tremendous lever for economic development. Today, Hydro-Québec owns 60 hydroelectric facilities and one nuclear plant which accounts for 36 671 MW31. These numbers make Hydro-Québec one of the biggest energy producers in the World and Québec also exports the electricity surplus to New England States and other Canadian provinces. Therefore, it is now understandable that today 96% of Québec’s electricity production is from hydroelectricity32. Also, as seen in figure 4, Québec electricity generation accounted for 31% of Canada’s total installed power in 2003.
29 Western Climate Initiative, 2012. About the WCI.
30 Teisceira-Lessard, P., 2011. Quebec goes it alone with cap-and-trade climate plan.
31 Hydro-Québec, 2012. Annual Report 2011.
32 WRCPA., 2000. Hydro-Quebec Serves Area for More Than 50 Years.
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Figure 4: Installed power in Canada in 2003, National Energy Board, source: National Energy Board, 2004. Energy in Quebec: central to change in North America.
On a related note, we can say that the energy balance of the province of Québec is clearly negative. Even though Québec produces more electricity than it needs, the province has to import all of its oil and gas33. In the future, the energy balance of Québec might change. In fact, the discovery of large amount of shale gas in the St-Lawrence Valley and of offshore oil in the St-Lawrence Gulf might make Québec a fossil fuel producer. This could reduce its dependency on fossil fuel imports. However, studies have shown that the emissions of shale gas exploitation are comparable to coal which does not make it a good solution from an environmental point of view34. Also, for the moment, the voice against the exploitation of shale gas, mostly for environmental reasons, forces the government to wait. Moreover, the launching of new dam projects in the North of the province will consolidate the choice of hydroelectricity to meet the growing electricity needs. Québec plans as well on increasing its number of wind power farms, hence wind power can act as a complement to hydropower. To conclude, Québec might have the possibility to diversify its energy systems and benefit from a positive energy balance in the years to come.
33 Lavier, T and Boulva O., 2010. Shale Gas, Saint Lawrence Oil and Quebec's New Energy Balance.
34 Howart, R., Santoro, R. and Ingraffea, A., 2011. Methane and the greenhouse-gas footprint of natural gas from shale formations.
14 2.2 The Situation in Sweden
2.2.1 Air Pollution Control
As early as 1909, the first Nature Conservancy law was passed by the Swedish Government. This legislation mainly stated the protection of “natural monuments” and the proclamation of 9 national parks. This makes Sweden the first European country to set up a national park preserving the wilderness35. In 1964, the Nature Conservancy Act (Naturvårdslag) developed that legislation a step further. It stated national policy guidelines and principles to protect and conserve the natural environment. The areas need to be protected because they are seen as valuable from a scientific and cultural point of view as well as for recreational activities36. These laws concern the conservancy of nature which is very important for the environment and the pollution control; however these legislation acts do not precisely target air pollution.
In 1967, the Swedish government finally created the National Environmental Protection Agency to deal with the growing environmental awareness of the 1960’s. Many issues were on the agenda of that agency such as acid rain, the greenhouse effect, the ozone layer and the protection of wildlife37. In 1969, the Environment Protection Act (Miljöskyddslagen) provided new laws against water pollution, air pollution, noise and other nuisances38. Moreover, it is important to mention that the first conference to discuss air pollution and acid deposition leading to international cooperation was held in Stockholm in 1972. That United Nations Conference on the Human Environment along with the Geneva Convention in 1979 were both very important milestones that led to the creation of a framework to reduce air pollution on a broad regional basis39.
In the 1970’s, the Swedish government became even more serious about air pollution.
They noticed that the emission trends of nitrogen oxides (NOx), which comes majorly from combustion and car traffic, had increased very rapidly from the mid-1950 to 197040. That increase was due to the fast car and industrial expansion but also to the use of oil as a fuel for homes and businesses. These emissions cause problems mainly in urban areas since this gas contributes to the creation of ground-level ozone which affects the environment and the health of citizens. Between 1970 and 1990 the nitrogen oxide emissions have been stable at around 300 kilotons per year. However, after 1990 we can see that the emissions have decreased considerably (figure 5). This is due in part by stricter rules related to emissions from new cars. Sweden was also successful in significantly reducing the amount of sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions since 1970 due mainly to the oil phase-out. In 2008, Sweden emitted only a third of the amount of sulphur dioxide emitted in 199041 (Figure 6).
35 Encyclopedia Britannica, 2012. Sweden.
36 Sand, P., 1972. Legal Systems for environment protection: Japan, Sweden, United States.
37 Gilpin, A., 1995. Environmental impact assessment: Cutting edge for the twenty-first century.
38 Sand, P., 1972. Legal Systems for environment protection: Japan, Sweden, United States.
39 Encyclopedia Britannica, 2012. Acid Rain.
40 Ekonomifakta, 2011. Kväveoxider.
41 Naturvårdsverket, 2011. Sveriges redovisning av gränsöverskridande luftföroreningar.
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Forty years ago, Sweden was one of the most oil dependent countries in the world: the Swedish society was built on cheap oil, used for heating as well as for the functioning of industries. The recovery since then is due to the restructuring and modernisation of the industrial sector, the use of low sulphur fuels but also because of the increasingly important role of nuclear energy in Sweden. It is also important to mention that Sweden is greatly affected by transboundary air pollutants. In fact, it has been proven in the 1970’s that the acidification of Swedish lakes was due to air pollutants that originated from continental Europe42. Moreover, in 1998, Sweden received approximately 90% of its sulphur pollution from other countries43.
Nowadays, Sweden’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are estimated to 47 Mt. This number went down from 80 million tonnes around 1980 and even higher numbers beforehand. Even though the carbon dioxide emissions decreased a little since 1990, the major drop was during the 1970’s and 1980’s. In fact, in 1970 while the world average was still increasing rapidly, the Swedish emissions went the opposite way (Figure 7). The causes of that decrease are oil crises in the 1970’s, the development of nuclear power, the expansion of biofuels use, energy efficiency measures and the increase in overall energy prices. Despite an increase of activity in almost all the sectors of the society, these factors have succeeded in bringing the emissions down. We should also remember that the international climate change negotiations have contributed substantially to that decrease in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
42 United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, 2012. The 1979 Geneva Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution.
43 Hare, S. et al., 2002. Air Pollution: Fact Sheet Series for Key Stage 4 and A-Level. 2nd ed.
Figure 5: Swedish emissions of NOx, source:
Swedenvirotech, 2010. Air pollution.
Figure 5: Swedish emissions of SO2, source:
Swedenvirotech, 2010. Air pollution.
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Figure 7: Carbon dioxide emissions in Sweden and in the World, source: Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, 2011. Koldioxidutsläpp - historiska uppskattningar.
In the field of protected area, Sweden seems to be proactive in order to keep low levels of greenhouse gases. Indeed, nowadays Sweden has a total of 29 national parks which accounts for 731 589 hectares. Furthermore, the Swedish governments even plans to add six more by 201344. In 2005, about 10% of Sweden’s territory was considered protected for nature conservation purposes45. In many countries, the destruction of forests increases the level of greenhouse gases; however, in Sweden, the great amount of forests actually reduces the amount of greenhouse gases emissions46.
Sweden is one of the countries with the lowest greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union and in the OECD. The country is always in the best countries whether you count per capita greenhouse gas emissions or emissions relative to gross domestic product (GDP). The main reason to explain these good results is that Sweden’s electricity production is close to fossil fuel free. In fact, heating and electricity production accounts for only 16.0% of the emissions (Figure 8). This is partly because electricity is generated in great part from hydro power and nuclear power, but also more and more by wind power and biofuels. Also, the district heating is nowadays almost entirely generated by biofuels, waste and heat pumps. Sweden still uses a small amount of coal in steel mills.
Domestic transport is the sector which represents the highest part of the emissions:
31.3%.
44 Naturvårdsverket, 2012. Nationalparker.
45 The Nordic Forest Owners Associations, 2007. Forests in Sweden.
46 Ekonomifakta, 2012. Växthusgaser per sektor.
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Figure 8: Swedish greenhouse gas emissions per sector, source: Naturvårdsverket, 2010. Utsläpp av växthusgaser per sektor.
Sweden has stated several potential solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector, since most of the growing transportation sector is still petroleum based.
For example, the Government could increase the tax on petrol and diesel and then keep it in line with the increase in GDP47. Another option could be to invest more in public transportation. However, it is known that Sweden has already a fairly good system.
Finally, a long term solution could be to develop vehicles that use new technologies: that are more energy efficient and that use alternative sources of energy48.
2.2.2 Climate Change
Often seen as a leader in environment policies, Sweden did not wait for the Kyoto protocol convention to take action against climate change. As early as 1991, Sweden was the first country to institute a carbon dioxide tax. This policy has proven to be really effective in the years after its adoption. However, in the 21st century, even if the cars pollute less, the amount of cars on the Swedish roads have increased which lead the government to hike that particular tax by 2.6% in 2008. Still this carbon tax is seen by experts as the cause of Sweden doing so well in the field of climate change. “It was the one major reason that steered society towards climate friendly solutions. It made pollution more expensive and focused people on finding energy-efficient solutions”49
47 Swedish Energy Agency, 2008. Greenhouse gas emissions can be sharply reduced.
48 Johansson, B., 1995. Strategies for reducing emissions of air pollutants from the Swedish transportation sector.
49 Fouché, G., 2008. Sweden's carbon-tax solution to climate change puts it top of the green list.
31,30%
25,60%
11,90%
2,80%
6,00%
16%
6,40%
Transport (31,3%)
Industrial (25,6%)
Agriculture (11,9%)
Waste (2,8%)
Other sectors (6,0%)
Electricity and Heat (16,0%)
Resdidential and Commercial (6,4%)
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according to Emma Lindberg, an expert on climate change at the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation.
In May 2002, Sweden ratified the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations framework Convention on climate change50. In that protocol, Sweden like the other industrialised countries decided to diminish greenhouse gas emissions by just over 5% compared to the levels of 1990, the time frame for this reduction is between 2008 and 2012. In 2003, the Swedish government established the electricity certificate which means that he decides how much renewable energy will need to be used by certain dates. Also, Swedish electricity suppliers receive subsidies from the government when they sell renewable electricity51. Already in 2006, the measures put in place by the Swedish government seem to be really successful. Not only did Sweden exceed the main Kyoto Protocol objective by reducing the GHG emissions by 9% instead of 5%, but the country was able to have economic growth of 44% in the same years52. This could prove that environment policies do not always affect the economy in a negative way. However, that so called “green growth” is highly debatable since a Swedish study found out that these results disappear when we take into account the imports53. Therefore, that economic growth with supposedly lower emissions is due to the export of emission intensive production to other countries. The following graph (Figure 9) shows that in 2009 Sweden was the best country when looking at both CO2 emissions per capita (on the x axis) and CO2 emissions per unit of production (on the y axis).
50 Swedish Energy Agency, 2006. Letter of approval.
51 Minx, J. et al., 2008. An analysis of Sweden's Carbon Footprint.
52 Kraemer, S., 2008. Sweden Exceeds Kyoto Targets; Economy Booms.
53 Berglund, M., 2011. Green growth? A consumption perspective on Swedish environmental impact trends using input–output analysis.
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Figure 9: Carbon dioxide emissions in OECD countries, source: Ekonomifakta Powerpoint, 2010. Energin, klimatet och tillväxten - Fakta om Sveriges energiförsörjning.
In March 2007, the European Union countries agreed on a more ambitious plan than the Kyoto Protocol to fight climate change. These climate and energy policy objectives are based on the recommendations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). According to the IPCC, temperatures should not increase by more than two degrees in comparison with pre-industrial levels. These EU agreements contain four major objectives. First, the reduction of GHG emissions by 30% if there is an international agreement or by 20% if there is no such agreement. The second goal is to increase the renewable sources of energy proportion by 20%. Third, the EU countries agreed to increase the proportion of renewable fuels by 10%. The fourth objective concerns the efficiency of energy use which needs to rise by 20%.
In 2007, the Swedish government instituted a congestion fee in Stockholm. This means that vehicles traveling in the inner city zone are charged between 10 and 20 SEK depending on the time of the day. This measure was established to reduce the car traffic in the Swedish Capital but also indeed to cut carbon emissions54. In 2008, Sweden’s budget included a variety of new measures related to climate and energy which accounted for more than 3 billion SEK and a special initiative related to climate and development of 4 billion SEK55. In the same year, the Swedish government announced its intention to be oil free by 2020 and a greenhouse gas emissions neutral country by 2050. This
54 Fouché, G., 2008. Sweden's carbon-tax solution to climate change puts it top of the green list.
55 Ministry of the Environment, 2004. Climate Policy.
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commitment will indeed demand a lot of effort from the government and the Swedish population. A national roadmap is currently conceived by the government, the Swedish EPA and other scientist groups to state the steps to follow to accomplish this tremendous objective, this roadmap should be ready in 201356. In 2012, the Swedish government decided to invest 200 million SEK in a super-green car discount. The goal of this economic incentive is to stimulate the introduction of electric cars and plug-in hybrids in the Swedish market. Moreover, Sweden aims to have a vehicle fleet that is completely fossil fuel independent by the year 203057. Finally, it is obvious that Sweden is a leader country in terms of climate change and we can just wish that more countries would take these kinds of ambitious initiatives.
2.2.3 Energy Balance
In Sweden, it is impossible to talk about energy without mentioning Vattenfall (Swedish for waterfall), an important organisation that first started as a state owned enterprise in the beginning of the 20th century and then became a flexible type of enterprise in 1992: a limited liability company. Vattenfall was founded in 1909 when the Trollhätan canal was restructured and a hydropower plant was built there, it marks the beginning of the Swedish government involvement in this new form of energy58. Until the 1970’s, the state enterprise keeps focusing on hydropower by building several hydropower plants.
For example, Harsprånget, built in 1951 was considered the World’s largest hydropower plant at the time. It is only in 1974 that Vattenfall starts building its first nuclear power plants: Ringhals 1 and 2. In the 15 following years, 12 nuclear reactors were built in Sweden; 7 of these are the property of Vattenfall. In 1995, Vattenfall decides to expand its activities outside of Sweden: it now owns a considerable market share in countries like Germany and Poland. In 2006, a pilot project of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in Germany was announced by Vattenfall. Also, one year later, Lillgrund, the huge offshore wind farm project located in the South of Sweden, started delivering electricity. Like the Swedish government, Vattenfall announced in 2008 that it aims to be a carbon neutral company by 205059. In September 2010, Vattenfall successfully inaugurated the World’s largest offshore wind power farm: Thanet, located in the United Kingdom.
The reason that Sweden chose to go towards nuclear power in the 1970’s was mainly to stay away from the uncertainties of oil prices and because of the nuclear weapons proliferation during these years. Nuclear power remains an important source of energy in Sweden despite the fact that the phase-out of it by 2010 was voted by the parliament in 198060. However, Sweden is also the only country in the World to have a discriminating tax on nuclear power: 0.67 Euro cents per kWh61. This tax represent as much as one-third
56 Ministry of the Environment, 2011. Sweden - an emissions-neutral country by 2050.
57 Ministry of the Environment, 2011. Government invests in super-green car rebate.
58 Vattenfall, 2012. Group History.
59 LaMonica, M., 2009. Swedish utility targets carbon-neutral electricity.
60 Gilpin, A., 1995. Environmental impact assessment: Cutting edge for the twenty-first century.
61 European Environmental Agency, 2011. Nuclear energy and waste production (ENER 013).
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of the production cost of nuclear energy62. On a long term plan, Sweden seems to progressively abandon nuclear power for new forms of renewable energy. For example, Sweden has been a producer of wind power since 1996; the production has slowly increased to 2 TWh in 200863, which represented approximately 1.4% of the electricity production (Figure 10).
Figure 10: Sources of electricity in Sweden, source: World Nuclear Association, 2012. Nuclear Power in Sweden.
After 2008, Sweden decided that developing wind power energy would be one of the best ways to fight greenhouse gas emissions. Also, since Sweden has a tremendous potential for wind power, the government drastically increased the targets of that form of energy.
In 2009, the Swedish government announced that the country should produce 30 TWh of wind power energy by 2020. Already in 2010, wind power production increased by 40%
compared to the year before, which now consists of 2.5% of the electricity production in Sweden64.
Like previously explained, since the 1970’s, Sweden tries to significantly reduce its dependence on fossil fuel. This decision is to lower the greenhouse gas emissions but also Sweden does not have any oil reserves. So far, we can say that the plan of the Swedish government has succeeded. As we can see on the following graph (Figure 11), in 2009 the World consumed 81% of its energy in fossil fuel compared to only 43% in Sweden.
Finally, the future of energy in Sweden seems promising; we can just hope that the country will reach its goal to become carbon neutral in 205065.
62 World Nuclear Association, 2012. Nuclear Power in Sweden.
63 Swedish Energy Agency, 2010. Energy in Sweden 2010: Facts and Figures.
64 Swedish Energy Agency, 2011. The potential of wind power in Sweden.
65 Energy Efficiency News, 2009. Sweden unveils plans to be carbon-neutral by 2050.
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Figure 11: Proportion of Fossil fuel energy in the World and in Sweden, Source: Ekonomifakta Powerpoint, 2010.
Energin, klimatet och tillväxten - Fakta om Sveriges energiförsörjning.
2.3 Comparison between Québec and Sweden
The analysis of Québec and Sweden revealed similarities and differences in the field of pollution and energy systems. Even though Sweden was, by far, first in establishing a law on environment conservation in 1909, both governments voted laws relative to air pollution around the same years and were greatly influenced by the Geneva Convention of 1979. Québec and Sweden have reduced their emissions of nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxides and carbon dioxide over the years, but it is clear that Québec still pollutes a lot more than Sweden. In the field of protected areas, Sweden is also doing slightly better:
10% of the territory compared to 8.5% for Québec.
In both Québec and Sweden, the transportation sector is the most significant cause of greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, if we compare them to other developed countries, the emissions per capita are low because most of their electricity is generated by hydroelectricity for Québec and by hydro as well as nuclear power for Sweden. When we talk about the Kyoto Protocol, Québec and Sweden were both aiming to fulfill the objectives of the Protocol. However, when Sweden did more than surpass the objectives, Québec will doubtfully be able to achieve them. In the two states, public or pseudo-public companies like Hydro-Québec and Vattenfall were and are still important actors in the development of electricity and renewable sources of energy. Québec and Sweden do not have domestic production of oil and they are both trying to reduce their dependence to this resource. The government of Québec is thinking about exploiting oil and gas fields on its territory as well as invest more in wind power energy. The government of Sweden’s strategy relies mostly on renewable sources of energy like wind power in order to become carbon neutral by 2050.
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3. Wind Power Energy
3.1 History of Wind Power Energy
Modern Wind power energy to produce electricity is quite recent. Nevertheless, we should not forget that men have used the power of wind for several millenniums. For example, it was used to move sailboats and later to pump water or grind grains with the use of windmills66. In the end of the 18th century, the industrial revolution in England marks a decline in the use of wind power, even for transportation on water67. Later, in the end of the 19th century, the international economy is mostly powered by coal and also by oil.
Nevertheless, it is during these years that the first windmill producing electricity was built. In the summer of 1887, a Scottish engineer, Prof James Blyth, used a windmill with sails made of cloth to power the lighting of his cottage68. Later the same year, the American Charles Brush built a much bigger windmill in Ohio; with a diameter of 17 meters, it could produce up to 12 kW. In the 1890’s, we could also see that kind of development in Denmark where Poul Lacour, a meteorologist, built several wind turbines to give power to farms and rural villages69. Unfortunately, for most of the 20th century, wind power is unable to compete with cheap fossil fuels and nuclear energy that are used to develop electricity grids
Then, we have to wait until the 1970’s to witness significant development in the field of wind power. Heavily affected by the oil crisis of 1973, countries like the United States, Canada, Germany, Sweden, England and Denmark decided to invest in the development of powerful wind turbines. Sadly, many of the programs put in place did not produce anything concrete because of technical difficulties and grid integration problems, making it impossible to have profitable wind turbines. Also, some projects were abandoned when the oil prices dropped again in the 1980’s. Nonetheless, in the 1980’s, the capacity of wind turbines went from 2.5kW to 300kW in only a few years, thanks to some countries that decided to pursue the development of wind power. This development triggered the reduction of the average cost of wind power as seen in the Figure 12.
66 Dodge, D., 2006. Illustrated History of Wind Power Development.
67 Saulnier, B. and Reid, R., 2009. L'éolien au coeur de l'incontournable révolution énergétique.
68 Blyth, J., 2005. Britain's first modern wind power pioneer.
69 Saulnier, B. and Reid, R., 2009. L'éolien au coeur de l'incontournable révolution énergétique.
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The country with the most optimistic plan is Denmark, who wishes to produce 50% of its electricity with wind power in 2030. This target is controversial since it would make them dependant on imported electricity, because wind power is seen as too unstable to reach 50%. We will come back to that issue later in the paper. To support its project, the audacious Danish government put in place a program with several economic incentives that will put this country at the forefront of wind power energy in the World. We should also mention that in the United States, the state of California finances greatly renewable sources of energy. Danish companies, with reliable turbines, took over that market and these sales helped them to improve their technology.
In 1991, Germany decided to launch a program very similar to the Danish one and, in 1995, it is the turn of Spain to do so. In the 1990’s, the market of wind power continues to grow because the wind turbines are now bigger, more reliable and more powerful. In the 21st Century, countries were also choosing wind power for other reasons like environmental concerns, because wind energy is sustainable, and the conscience that oil supplies will not last forever70.
Moreover, offshore wind power became increasingly popular. Despite their high construction and maintenance costs, these wind turbines produce more electricity due to favourable wind conditions71. For example, in 2001, Denmark inaugurated an offshore wind farm of 20 wind turbines with the capacity of 2MW each. There is also still progress in the electricity production capacity: Germany achieved the making of a wind turbine capable of producing 5MW of electricity in 200572. The market for wind power energy never stops growing and reached a total capacity of 239 GW in 2011 (Figure 13).
70 WindTurbine.me, 2008. The History of Wind Power.
71 Ocean Energy Council, 2012. Offshore Wind Energy.
72 Renewable Energy World, 2005. Germany Inaugurates 5 MW Wind Turbine Prototype.
Figure 12: Evolution of average cost of wind power electricity from 1982 to 2002 and projection to 2020, source: Brown, L., 2006.
Wind Energy Demand Booming.
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Since this capacity only represents 3% of the World’s demand of electricity, there are still plenty of opportunities to grow73.
Figure 13: World's Wind Energy Net Generation (GWh), source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2011.
International Energy Statistics.
Finally, it is notable that the development of wind power was mostly related to the price of oil. For example, cheaper oil prices in the United States might explain why Europe seems to be more advanced in the field of wind power. Fortunately, the future looks bright for wind power; the market is growing and the technology is improving every year.
3.2 Wind Power in Québec
In Québec, the development of wind power has progressed slowly, mainly because the province has already low electricity prices and because electricity comes from a renewable energy source: hydroelectricity. It is only in the 1980’s that Hydro-Québec started to experiment in the field of wind power: the public company built a few vertical axis wind turbines in the Gaspé Peninsula. The government decided to end the project a few years later because the turbines were technically problematic and did not seem to be cost effective74. In fact, we will see that three-bladed horizontal axis turbines will be the global norm later on until today. The real awakening of wind power in Québec is related to the Kyoto protocol. In 1988, contracts of 360 MW are given by Hydro-Québec to
73 World Wind Energy Association, 2012. World Market recovers and sets a new record: 42 GW of new capacity in 2011, total at 239 GW.
74 Lefrancois, G., 2006. Le privé dans l’énergie éolienne.
0 50000 100000 150000 200000 250000 300000 350000
Wind Electricity Net Generation (GWh)
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private companies with the mandate to start the development of wind power with 5 wind farms in the Gaspé Peninsula, an area with high wind potential75.
In 2003, after witnessing the development of wind power in Europe, the government of Québec decided to give contracts for new projects. From now on, wind power contracts will be awarded through a request for tender system. For this first call for tenders of 1 000 MW(to be functional between 2006 and 2012), the wind farms had to be built in the Gaspé Peninsula and the private companies had to spend 60% of their costs in Québec (30% in that region): to create jobs in the area because of its high level of unemployment76. A year later, an independent firm study stated that the potential for wind power in Québec is tremendous, about 100 GW77, however an estimated 4 000 MW more could be integrated to the current electric system of the province78. A second invitation of tenders is announced by the government in 2005; it is for 2 000 MW of wind power energy in any region of the province to be fully functional in 2015.
In 2008, the Government of Québec announced that an extra 500 MW of wind power will be allowed to community projects and native communities. These projects give communities the opportunity to manage their own project in order to fulfill their specific needs. In March 2012, the installed capacity of wind power in Québec was in total 1 057.2 MW. As we can see in the figure 14, there are many wind farms in construction and projected, therefore the estimated installed capacity for 2015 is approximately 4 000 MW79.
75 Bouchard, R. and Chaumel, J., 2007. L'éolien, pour qui souffle le vent?
76 TechnoCentre Éolien, 2008. Région Désignée.
77 Guilbeault, S., 2009. Alerte! : Le Québec à l’heure des changements climatiques.
78 Bouchard, R. and Chaumel, J., 2007. L'éolien, pour qui souffle le vent?
79 MRNF, 2012. Le potentiel éolien au Québec.
Figure 14: Wind Farms in Québec (green: functional, blue: in construction, white: projected), source: Hydro-Québec, 2012. Parcs
éoliens et centrales visés par les contrats d'approvisionnement.
