Sweden's bio-energy success story

This is a very interesting read.

While people still argue and many are prepared to debate long into Sweden's success in managing its forest resources for  bio-energy, other nations with good biomass resources can learn from Sweden's policies. Malaysia is still rich with forest resources and it doesn't do any harm at all to learn a thing or two from their success.

Today, forest residue is the leading bio-energy source in Sweden, and compared to 3 years ago, bio-energy is now the nation’s biggest energy source.

One of the bio-energy plants in Sweden. Photo: REW

Growth catalysts

The reasons for the Swedish bio-energy sector’s phenomenal growth include:

• broad political support 
• incentives such as the CO2 tax introduced in 1991
• green electricity certificates introduced in 2003, 
• tax exemptions for transport bio-fuels
• Sweden's long-standing tradition of using its natural forest resources
• good protection and development of forest resources

Contributing factors to biomass development:

• the rising prices for imported oil, and 
• the Sweden's debate over nuclear power.

Since late 1970s, Sweden has been seeking new and safe energy sources, evidenced with the initiation of national research into renewable energy. Heating plants had largely switched to biomass, which made up 70% of district heating fuel in 2010.

Biofuels: Swedish cars use high-blend bio-fuels such as E85, which can contain up to 85% ethanol, and biogas, and at the end of 2011 Sweden had more than 200,000 flexi-fuel cars on its roads.

Biomass: Biomass for heating accounts for more than 50% of all space heating in Sweden's housing and service sectors. It is no wonder that there are around 100,000 small-scale pellet heating systems operating in Sweden.

Note: The book that talks about the Swedish bio-energy success story (priced about $12.50) can be found at Svebio.


TheGreenMechanics: Swedish car buyers receive a rebate of SEK10,000 (US$1560 or approximately RM4,850) for buying a green car. We don't have similar cash incentive in Malaysia. But we can surely learn from their environmentally-friendly policies.

Study: Swedes are most Internet savvy

Question: Which country is the best at putting the Web to use?

Answer : the U.S.

Very close, but not quite. That would be Sweden, according to a new report spearheaded by Tim Berners-Lee, the guy who basically invented the World Wide Web, WWW. I know many Americans would not agree to this, but hey this is just one study. Take it with a pinch of salt, if you like.

The Web Index is the measure of the Web’s use, utility and impact on people and nations.

U.S. is second best country in the world for using the internet

The United States came in second place on the much-anticipated study, which was published online Wednesday by the World Wide Web Foundation.

Called the Web Index, the first-of-its-kind report ranked 61 countries across seven categories, including communications infrastructure, Web use, Web content and the political, social and economic impact of the Internet in those countries.

The group, in collaboration with Oxford Economics, collected five years of data from other sources and spent a year conducting surveys to arrive at its conclusions. The report was funded in full by a $1 million grant from Google. Yemen, the violence-plagued Middle Eastern country, ranked last on the list, behind Zimbabwe and Burkina Faso, both in Africa.

Overall, one in three people worldwide use the Internet, according to the report. But Web use is uneven. Only one in six Africans use the Web.

Sweden beat out the United States on the ranking in part because a smaller percentage of Americans are online. About three-quarters of American are Internet users, compared with about 90% of Sweden's population. Meanwhile, "the U.S. has a lower percentage of households with personal computers than a raft of countries, including Canada, Ireland, Japan and Norway," the report says.

The United States "also offers slower bandwidth per Internet user than a range of countries, most notably Iceland, Sweden and Singapore."

The United States is No. 1 in terms of access to Web content, which the report measures in terms of the number of Wikipedia articles in a particular language as well as "the type of data and information that is accessible on the Web in each country."

Iceland topped the list in terms of its Internet infrastructure and Web use. Nearly 96% of people in that country use the Internet, according to the report.

Singapore has the world's fastest Internet, and Ireland's economy benefits the most from the Web. Internet and communications-related exports accounted for 15% of its gross domestic product between 2007 and 2010, which the report says puts it "exponentially ahead of any other nation." - CNN

Dark blue and purple ones scored highest and red the lowest

In summary, the report says:

1. Google granted $1 million to fund this report
2. The Web Index report ranked 61 countries and Sweden is best at using Internet
3. The U.S. comes second
4. Yemen ranked last on the list, behind Zimbabwe (both in Africa)
5. On average, 1 in 3 people worldwide use the Internet (in Africa only 1 in 6)
6. The U.S. is No. 1 in terms of access to Web content
7. Iceland is No. 1 in terms of its Internet infrastructure and Web use
8. Singapore (ranked 11 in the Web Index) has the world's fastest Internet
9. ASEAN nations ranking:

Singapore (11th), Philippines (32nd), Indonesia (34th), Thailand (37th), Vietnam (47th)

To see the complete list, visit the Web Index.


How about Malaysia?

Now, where's Malaysia? Why isn't Malaysia included in the report?

Currently, household broadband penetration in Malaysia is 63.95%, so, we should sit somewhere between 20th and 30th place. As for Sabah, broadband penetration is about 35%, that is way below the national average.